MINFI delegate scores low in NW 2016 Public Investment Budget

It was an absolute misrepresentation of the Ministry of finance MINFI Thursday, January 7, 2016, during the official launching of the 2016 public investment budget for 2016 in the MINEPAT ceremonial hall up station Bamenda.

MINFI, as it is known, is headed by Minister Alamine Usman Mey a finance expert of exceptional class brought in from the private sector to salvage the image of an untrusted Ministry.

From his background, one would expect nothing short of near perfection from his staff particularly those at the central level.

The core of NW administration was taken aback when a member of the team from MINFI was invited to present a crucial document like the position of his ministry on the region's 2016 public investment budget.

After struggling to manage the microphone with lots of difficulty, the man chosen by the MINFI was practically murmuring a few words which could not be heard though he was using a microphone.

After proposing that someone helps him but to no avail, the Secretary general to the NW region Absalum Monono Wolua practically ordered that he stops the 30-page presentation and give way for others.

From what we gathered, the MINFI delegation met late on Wednesday evening to prepare the document but the head was nowhere to be found. He only appeared in the MINEPAT hall and as the head, he had to present a 30-page document he was seeing for the first time. Unfortunately for the delegation leader, just the circular letter of the Minister bearing on the budget was difficult for him to read.

However, the launching exercise went on with representatives from the Ministries of Planning, Economy and Regional Development MINEPAT, Public Contracts MINMAP, presenting various aspect of the PIB in the NW with corroborations from their regional delegates.

While encouraging vote holders to be more realistic in the execution of the budgets, the MINMAP delegate from Yaounde elaborated on the lowest bidder concept and concluded that over 140contractors have been suspended nationwide with some from the NW region for poor execution of projects.

Speaking earlier, the Secretary General of the region noted that the government has made reforms in public finance management in a bid to put sanity in budget management as reflected by the program budget. In 2016, he noted that government expects the respect of the dispositions on budget execution.

According to Absalum, 2015 projects execution was satisfactory and for the region to achieve that in 2016, "bureaucratic bottlenecks" must be avoided particularly at the time more monitoring mechanisms have been put in place in a bid to help government sanction those with "bad fate."

On the region's share of 2016 budget, The SG disclosed that 495 projects have been earmarked for the Northwest with financial attributions amounting to over FCFA 32.2bn.

Survivors of lake Nyos, management of risk around the lake, the construction of a police health center, the second access road to Bamenda from Akum via Bali featured amongst some of the region's most important projects.

The use of unqualified personnel and fake documents by contractors and the non-collaboration of Mayors featured prominently amongst the challenges facing the sector as raised by the Northwest Regional Chief of Taxes for the NW Fonyuy Fidelis and the NW delegate for MINMAP.