Cameroon Postal Services mired in corruption

Unscrupulous workers and Custom officers of the postal services in Cameroon are embroiled in a racket wherein they cheat both the State and customers of billions of FCFA.

This cancerous fibre remains a major threat towards the stabilisation of customer confidence at CAMPOST.

The gross violation of Article 1(1) of Law No 2006/019 of December 29, 2006, by a chain of employees at the national mailing company is disheartening. Debatable taxes are arbitrarily levied mostly against the legislation regulating postal activities in Cameroon. Victims continuously pay exaggerated amounts of money under the guise of taxes and custom duties.

Majority of Cameroonians have stopped using the national mailing service. Yaounde city dweller, Yasmine Ismail said she prefers using DHL (Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn) Express because it is faster and reliable, while Nora Ngalim has resorted to the services offered by the social media.

A client, Ibrahim Daouda, apparently unaware about these scams is contented with CAMPOST procedures once he is assured of obtaining a receipt after payment. “I do not understand why I should bargain when at the end I will be issued a receipt. That receipt will serve as proof in case I discover that I was overtaxed,” he explained.

Inside sources at CAMPOST, disclosed that part of these exorbitant charges end in the pockets of unscrupulous custom officers who intentionally fail to hand receipts to many naïve clients after stiff and outlawed bargains. This weighs much on some customers who are faced with a nightmare of withdrawing their overtaxed goods.

This reporter went to the Post Office at Messa on October 7, 2015 to uncover the modalities of receiving a parcel from abroad. The receptionist recommended I get in contact with the bureau of industrial platform for mails and parcels situated around the CAMRAIL Railway Station. There, I approached a post office agent and laid my worry.

Attentive and welcoming, the lady said there is a fixed postal tax of FCFA 1,950 per parcel, which is followed by a custom duty stamped after proper examination by officials of the customs department. Quizzed on the absence of fixed rates she said: “There are no fixed prices because we tax based on the cost of the goods at the time of purchase.”

A custom officer at the CAMPOST bureau of industrial platform for mails and parcels noted that recipients of incoming packages are obliged to pay these taxes regardless of claims made by senders that they had already paid for all the charges abroad. On the contrary, a DHL agent disclosed that it is possible for a sender to pay all the charges taxed on their good from abroad.

When questioned, another post office agent corroborated a client’s assertion that some paid parcels are collected without receipts to validate payments by clients. “That is how we operate. I shall help to reduce your bill but I will not give you a receipt,” she said. Coincidentally, she was in the process of issuing a client’s A3 receipt, which was strangely detached from the receipt booklet.

Another client, Alvine Tchachounte confirmed she was not issued a receipt. She said she dances to the tune for fear of being the biggest loser. Tchachounte revealed that she once bargained and finally paid FCFA 100,000 whereas she was initially asked to pay FCFA 250.000 to collect her package of weave on. This is a typical example of how State funds are swindled and the National Treasury is kept dry.

“Why are you behaving as if you are not a Cameroonian?

A narration of what transpired with the customs officer and I inspired my potential negotiator to question my nationality. “Why are you behaving as if you are not a Cameroonian? She asked. She said that is how custom officers make money at the detriment of the postal service. “Look up the roof on your right, you shall see a video surveillance camera,” she hinted. This is an ironical situation because no such cameras were spotted at the customs unit.

Explanations to justify lapses at the post office are varied. However, a senior custom officer who asked for anonymity recounted his ordeals. He said some top government officials pressurise custom officials to disrespect the law.

“This is Cameroon. Each parcel that comes has somebody behind it. I receive calls from the highest authorities of this country. How can someone call you from the Presidency and tell you in French ‘petit frère faire le necessaire,’ roughly translated it reads ‘young man facilitate things for me.’ At times a Minister who has a bill of FCFA 1.3 million tells you ‘je travail pour l’état.’ In this case, the person in question is asking for the cancellation of the bill because he claims to be working for the State.”

He added: “I get instructions from hierarchy days after the incident like ‘ils vont payer un forfaits.’ They shall pay later.”

The custom officer who is scared of being sacked has to bow to orders from top government officials by allowing them withdraw their goods without paying the full amount tagged on the parcel. Subordinates of the custom officer have joined the bandwagon. The custom scribe admits that he is aware of the malpractices and arrogance exercised by his colleagues at the postal service. “Most women in my service are aggressive because they are wives of personalities,” he said.

He acknowledged that some clients are misled to bargain but argued that the complete computerisation of the postal service will hamper negotiators from extorting money from clients.

The senior custom officer refuted allegations of customers claiming that charges of their goods have been settled abroad. “Custom duties are paid only inside the national territory because the national treasury has no accounts abroad,” he reiterated. He said: “DHL uses a Delivered Duty Paid, DDP service, which permits it to take charge of transactions paid abroad. When such items arrive, DHL takes the engagement to pay for customers who paid all charges abroad because they already have a deposit in the bank, making it easier for the bank to settle the national treasury.”

However, he admitted that there are some goods that are tax free. Text books, excluding Bibles, fall under this category. “…but the sender and receiver must attest that they have been living in the country for six months and that the good has been used for at least six months,” he explained.

In as much as the law on customs is optional on books, custom officers have unilaterally allotted books with a fixed price tag of FCFA 5,000.

“Since the law is optional on the custom duties of books the customer is not obliged to pay. They can give whatever amount they wish to pay since the money is secured in the coffers of the customs and not the national treasury,” he revealed. “It is difficult to tell someone to remove money from their pocket spontaneously. Thus, we have a role to educate the public,” he concluded.

The new management of CAMPOST under the leadership of Mr Frederic Fenni has promised to turn the tables on the platform of proximity, innovation, engagement, consideration and professionalism. Government on its part has invested over FCFA 32 billion in an effort to computerise the system.