CONAC workers go two months without salaries

Personnel of the national anti-corruption commission, commonly known by its French acronym, CONAC, has not been paid salaries and allowances for the months of June and July, following an on-going investigation launched at the commission in May, by the Supreme State Audit office.

News of the non-payment of the salaries was confirmed to the Cameroon Daily Journal by a staff of CONAC who pleaded anonymity.

The salaries were blocked, following a recommendation by the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in Charge of the Supreme State Audit, Henri Ayissi Eyebe.

The recommendations, Cameroon Journal learned, were made following a report from state inspectors who have been carrying out the investigation of CONAC.

The inspectors have stated that the salaries, monthly allowances and bonuses of the commission’s staff were paid in violation of the rules and regulations laid down in a 1987 decree. The decree outlines bonuses and allowances to be paid to staff members of state institutions.

But for senior staff of CONAC, the 1987 text does not apply to the commission as it is not an administrative arm of the administration. They hold that the inspectors were supposed to complete their job, and send their report to the presidency for a decision to be taken.

The Chairman of CONAC, Rev. Dieudonne Massi Gams held a press conference on May 26 to enlighten the public on the investigations taking place at his commission. He casted aspersions on the Supreme State Audit office for embarking on the probe, adding that the credibility of the final report that will be published will be questionable.

Massi Gams condemned the fact that the press was already made aware of the investigation and suggested that the leak of the information to the press was maliciously and intentionally done by the State Audit Office.

A few days after the press conference, the Minister Delegate in Charge of the Supreme State Audit office, Ayissi also organised a press conference to counter the information given out by the CONAC chair. He told reporters that he was simply doing his job and that it is within his boundaries.

Though popular opinion has seen it as a battle for supremacy as to which group heads the fight against corruption in the country, the Supreme State Audit office maintains that salaries of CONAC staff are exorbitant and are higher than what was proposed in the presidential decree creating the commission.

According to the state auditors, the commission board members and chair were not supposed to have monthly salaries but were rather to be paid

CONAC for its part insists that its personnel are supposed to earn salaries equal to those paid to staff of UN agencies, following a UN anti-corruption convention which Cameroon is a party to.

Some staff of CONAC earn as much as 7million FCFA which the commission chair, during the May 26 press conference, said is still lower than what is paid to staff of anti-corruption commissions in other African countries.

Judging from the list of countries he presented to the press, Cameroon anti-corruption commission staff is neither among the lowest nor the highest paid in the continent.