Much resistance, many obstacles in fight against corruption

The Chairman of the National Anti-corruption Commission, CONAC, says there is still a lot of resistance by some government ministries to fighting the ill.

Speaking at the Yaounde Conference yesterday, October 30, 2014, at the public presentation of results of the seventh phase of the campaign involving 26 government ministries, State-funded projects and corporations, Rev. Dr. Dieudonné Massi Gams, said despite a presidential directive, some ministries were yet to engage in the fight.

On the other hand, some ministries launch highly publicised, supposed anti-corruption campaigns, only to end at that level; with nothing done on the field after. He cited the glaring case of 38 stakeholders that engaged in the seventh phase of the anti-corruption drive on April 15, 2014, but 12 later dropped out for unknown reasons. Thus, only 26 stakeholders completed the Rapid Results Initiative, which entailed targeting specific aspects of corruption in their organisations and combatting them in 100 days.

Dr Massi Gams acknowledged that fighting corruption in any part of the world was fraught with obstacles, adding that this should not in any way discourage stakeholders. The CONAC Chair called on the ministries, State corporations and projects, which had embarked on the fight to sustain the campaign. He expressed hope that the fight will be taken to the grassroots for Cameroonians to feel the impact, pointing out that the ultimate judge of the efforts was the public.

The Chairman of the National Anti-corruption Commission was also hopeful that Cameroon’s fight against the ill will ultimately yield palpable results; without which the country cannot become emergent by 2035. He said the desire was to one day become like Botswana which has been adjudged to be the least corrupt African nation.

Talking about the case of the Cameroon National Oil Refinery, SONARA, the General Manager, Talba Malla, said focus this time was on curbing malpractices in the loading of oil tankers with petroleum products. Though he said an 80 per cent success rate was recorded within 100 days, there was still a long way to go as both the State and oil tanker owners needed to get their right due from such transactions.

The presentation of anti-corruption evaluation results by the remaining 13 government ministries, State corporations and projects, ends today, October 31, 2014.