Audit bench decries poor public accounts information

The 12th Exchange Forum between the institution and the Finance and Budget Committee held yesterday at the National Assembly.

The Audit Bench of the Supreme Court has warned that public financial information in Cameroon is not yet reliable and could become worse thus creating a growing risk on the credibility of the State’s financial information system.

During the 12th Exchange Forum with members of the Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly yesterday, July 7, 2015, the institution said it demonstrated this assertion through its audits, rulings and opinions in terms of accounting principles and techniques of providing financial information furnished by budgets, level of their execution, national and public regional accounts as well as resulting financial statements.

While briefing MPs, one of the officials of the Audit Bench, Elie Désiré Nack Ndjom, said the quality of financial information supplied is affected by unfinished reforms resulting in a system weakened by cracks in responsibility in the management of public funds, dysfunctions in the control system, the lack of implementation of accrual accounting, and the launch of an emergency three-year investment plan on the sidelines of the finance laws and legal control; all which put to doubt public financial information.

“Financial information is the raw material for investors because it is necessary for decision-making. The State which is now subject to capital markets, must convince its donors and subscribers to treasury bonds or bond markets,” he argued.

However, there has been an obvious evolution in the legal and technical framework for the production of reliable and credible financial information since the advent of the Audit Bench which has raised many shortcomings during controls of public accounts.

The 12th Exchange Forum co-chaired by the President of the Audit Bench of the Supreme Court, Mr. Justice Marc Ateba Ombala, and the Chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee on Finance and Budget, Hon. Motymbo Rosette Ayayi, also witnessed the presentation of the Audit Bench’s 2013 Annual Report.