Career Management of Civil Servants : Historic Evolution To “AIGLES”

From the early years of Cameroon’s independence in 1960, officials became aware of the need to improve the methods of administrative work especially as the cost of running the administration was almost consuming the entire budget of the State. The effectiveness and efficiency of public administrations and consequently administrative reforms became a major concern. As such, the government began putting in place mechanisms and institutions to address the issue. The journey has been a tedious, slow but steady one; moving from one reform to another; “ANTILOPE”, “SIGIPIES 1” to “SIGIPIES 2”, today the government is talking about the “AIGLES” programme.
The “ANTILOPE” programme was part of a series of reforms in the country’s public service in the 1980s. It was part of a larger set of reforms that included payroll overhauls, performance contracts, among others. Given that the ANTILOPE Project failed to address inefficiencies and corruption within the Public Service, in 2002, the Ministry of Public Service and Administrative Reform (MINFOPRA) set up a project to improve the transparency of personnel management systems through the use of ICTs. Hence, the introduction of the Integrated Computerised State Personnel and Payroll Management System (SIGIPES). SIGIPES as it was called, handled personnel and payroll data, and it addressed procedural shortcomings.
It is also revealed that SIGIPES was firstly a reaction to complaints from other ministries about lack of transparency and insufficient responsiveness in the way that MINFOPRA was handling personnel files. The Aquarium project was a continuation of this same process by which MINFOPRA sought to demonstrate to external critics that it had some commitment to increase transparency and better service. However, SIGIPES did not eliminate corruption or inefficiencies. It suffered some shortcomings. Limited...