Salaray Error Rectifications in January 2014

State functionaries who had their duty allowances and other fringe benefits curtailed in the last payout may have the situation regularized next month if it is proven that they deserve what was slashed.

Managers of human resources of all ministries undertook activities within the framework of automatisation of salary advantages of State personnel as from December 2013. Against this backdrop, a new information system has been put in place to automatically process the position of each personnel in the computer application code-named ANTILOPE.

The innovation, which sought to put personnel in their rightful positions and due allowances served them, witnessed some hitches. According to a news release from the Ministry of Finance, "State agents who have realised a change in their payroll are requested to contact telephone number 22 23 00 24 for more information and clarification. Necessary regularisations including the less gained will be effected in the month of January 2014."

It emerged from Cameroon Tribune's investigations at the Ministry of Finance yesterday December 26 that the automatisation on salary advantages is to put an end to file chasing which breeds corruptions and tarnishes the image of the country. It is worth noting that appointments go with financial advantages. For instance, FCFA 15,000 for Chief of Service, FCFA 25,000 for Sub Directors and FCFA 40,000 for Directors.

Most often, there are people who get to those positions and do not get the allowances, others who leave the posts and continue to earn the allowances unduly and worse still, some who accumulate the allowances without accumulating the duty posts. The ongoing reform is to serve those appointed to automatically have their advantages as well as halt others from tapping from the State coffers when they are no longer occupying due posts.

The operation championed by the Ministry of Finance and which groups all managers of human resources of all ministries consists in collecting data on who occupies what posts in what administration and on who is entailed to what advantage. "What we have used is what the managers of human resources brought and endorsed.

If there are problems, then it should be at the level of transmission of the data," a source at the Ministry of Finance said. Although the operation involved all ministries, the military appear to have been the hardest hit by the slash. Our source said this could be due to the existence of posts of Assistant Chiefs of Service reserved for Section Heads and which do not have codes.

Although a number has been served them to call and complain, our source said, it would not serve any purpose calling the Ministry of Finance as the problem is supposed to be solved at the level of human resources of the concerned ministries and the Ministry of Finance simply notified by the human resource managers. We did not get information on how much the State gained in the operation but our source said hundreds of millions of FCFA might have been economised and will be continually saved with the efficiency of the reform.