Between Egocentric and Common Good

Public discourse and practical reality in the management of administrative vehicles in Cameroon have been at variance.

The call for an improvement in public spending has often fallen on barren soil as far as the purchase and use of government vehicles is concerned.

Else, how can one justify the fact that in spite of existing texts, there are still uncountable limousines being purchased by officials and even worse, such cars serve every purpose except for office use.

They are seen transporting kids to school, taking the VIP’s wife to the market, transporting cement and other building material to the boss’ house construction site, overloaded with bunches of plantains and cocoa yams from the farms or heavily laden with dust on weekends as they return from a funeral ceremony or just from the ‘big man’s village’ where he/she went for family matters.

Yet, rules and regulations that govern the way service vehicles should be use do exist. A onetime Prime Minister vowed to put an end to the abusive use of administrative vehicles going down town himself to ensure that all government vehicles were being driven by the right persons and for the intended purpose.

He must have been seen as an object for public ridicule by many as the initiative died immediately he turn back to his office. A cabinet Minister attempted the same uphill task with no better result.

Thus, it may sound naive pointing fingers or asking questions about the growing resistance to the management of public vehicles in the country. The reality has been so disturbing that the Head of State sounded a warning bell.

In his state of the Nation address on 31 December 2014, President Paul Biya clearly pointed out that; “our administration would stand to benefit by streamlining its procedures and, as I said recently and instructed, cutting down on its spending.” Undoubtedly, one of the areas where the administration must reduce expenses is the purchase of vehicles.

Rather than go for luxurious cars for certain administrative services, one must not be an expert in public spending to observe that officials who work only in the major cities go for cars that would enable them to circulate on poor roads to their villages and not just to go to work. The better option would have been to ensure that good roads exist in most parts of the country so that simple vehicles can serve the administration.

Unfortunately, the image being given by some decision-makers is that for a good road to be constructed, they must be sure of kick backs to allow the project to succeed.

The inability of various senior government officials to either stop or control the purchase of gorgeous vehicles in the public administration speaks of some internal complicity.

In trying to present a prestigious image of the government and public administration, it is important that such efforts should also take into consideration the living standards of the population.

Where the number of job seekers keep growing exponentially and the poverty line continue to swell, there is the urgency to take such worrying conditions into all government policies so that no one feels left out of the national development trend.

An inclusive development policy is imperative for a country like Cameroon that still has so much to build and the improvement in academic levels clearly means that those in decision-making positions should factor that into all policies.

It may not be too much to remind those who pursue egocentric ambition that it is much easy to work for the common good once in any public office, otherwise the intended results that the Head of State has earmarked for the emergence of Cameroon by 2035 will hardly come to fruition.