Fuel Coupons and Telephone: Cutting the exorbitant cost

The facts are disheartening, but the State has put in place measures to streamline exaggerated expenditure.

FCFA 120 billion is the amount to be economised by the State in the execution of the 2015 budget. The amount must be achieved as government is aiming for sustained economic growth - one with visible impact on the livelihoods of Cameroonians.

And for this turn-around to be achieved, the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Philemon Yang, on December 17, 2014, during the cabinet meeting, did not mince words.

He issued instructions to the Minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey, directing him to propose a cut of 15 per cent on public expenditure. December 31, 2014 was the deadline.

Since then, some public officials who had hitherto enjoyed luscious gratifications, especially with regards to fuel and telephone, have been gnashing their teeth. The decision only comes to complement the implementation of 2013 reforms streamlining public spending by 10 per cent, which also met with mixed feelings.

Fuel Coupons

The decision of government comes against a backdrop of public outcry against the alarming budgetary allocation and waste of fuel coupons by officials. Gone will soon be the days when any user could get in and out of a public official’s office brandishing fuel vouchers as ‘taxi fare’ even without owning a vehicle.

Even finance controllers have noted that some officials have in the past sought the disbursement of all allocated petrol vouchers destined for their use. Most of them who had exorbitant fuel coupons will have only their overzealousness to blame as its quarterly disbursement is now effective, with streamlining measures not smiling at anyone.

The Finance Controller in the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, Mouassie Méfiré Guillaume, explained that his office has started an inventory whereby only services with heavy workload and service vehicles deserving fuel are served coupons. Mouassie Méfiré wondered aloud why a department without a service vehicle, without any need for external services, will want to receive fuel coupons.

Telephone Calls

“Silence! We are working.” “This is not a telephone booth.” “Watch out for the noise, please.” These are some of the catch phrases that have caught the attention of users in some public buildings.

Most often, the office users are cautioning against exaggerated noise in the corridors and most especially, emanating from telephone calls. It is no longer news talking about the transformation of office space into telephone units whereby family meetings are coordinated and organised.

Come to think of a situation whereby one will want to make a pressing professional call, but a colleague is cracking jokes on the office line that is meant for smooth organisation of work. Such cases abound and the abusive use has sent the government treasury settling exorbitant huge private bills instead of using the money for projects to improve the livelihoods of Cameroonians.

A Director of General Affairs in Yaounde made Cameroon Tribune to understand the telephone was the only free-for-all tool that their personnel, especially support staff, could boast of. “What happens if we deprive these needy of this?” the public official argued.

Communication is relatively cheap and the advent of Information and Communication Technology has facilitated matters. The use of office telephone was no longer like in the past and all administrative bills were centralized and paid by the Ministry of Finance. Some ministries have however come up with an internal five-digit number cost effective system of telephone calls in a bid to cut government spending.

Although figures on how much the State uses on fuel coupons and telephone in public administration remains a mystery, the said State losses much to this wasteful spending.

The Ministry of Finance, according to Wakou Roger, Chef of Division for the Preparation of the Budget, has within its technical operational implementation of the Head of Government’s directives, instituted a computerized system for the reduction of bloated expenditure.