2015 budget is organised national embezzlement - SDF MPs

The SDF Parliamentary Group at the National Assembly has described the adoption of the 2015 budget as an official approval of illegality and generalised and organised national embezzlement of State funds.

This assertion is contained in a preliminary objection the group leader, Hon. Joseph Banadzem Lukong, presented during plenary sitting 0n December, 5, devoted for the adoption of the budget.

“We have a host of reasons to call for this bill (finance bill) to go back to the Finance Committee and we want to reiterate that the Government cannot continue to ridicule this nation. We consequently demand that this draft budget be returned to the Finance Committee for a profound and total scrutiny of all its components, including the Senate budget.

And if the Finance Committee cannot finish this work before the end of this session, we have the provisions of Article 16(b) of the Constitution which empowers the President of the Republic to extend the previous budget by 1/12 until a new budget is adopted by this house,” partly reads the preliminary objection.

The SDF MPs argued that voting the budget of the Senate without any scrutiny as was the case last year, is tantamount to giving a blank cheque for the embezzlement of public funds. This year again, the Senate has not presented itself for the Finance Committee for the defense, Hon. Banadzem regretted.

The objection further reads: “We have over the years and repeatedly called our Government to respect our laws especially as regards the budget. We have raised concerns over the violation of laws by Government and the hijacking of Parliament by the CPDM majority.”

While chiding Government on a number of issues, the SDF MPs noted that the settlement bill was expected, according to the law, on September 30. But, it was intentionally brought to MPs almost two weeks after the beginning of the budgetary session. They argued that mid-year budget review was expected on September 30. But it is still being awaited. To them, the 2015 draft budget was expected latest 15 days before the start of the November session, as per the law, but it arrived 15 days after the session.

While underlining further the provisions of the law, Hon. Banadzem said: “We have not arrived at having our Government respect these provisions, moreover, section 43(4) and (5) of law No. 2007/006 of December 26, 2007 relating to the fiscal regime of the State, which we believed was our trump-card for national development of this country.” He regretted that Government has violated such provisions with impunity.

“Section 43(4) and (5) read thus; (4) The second part of the Finance Law may be debated in Parliament only after the adoption of the first part” (5) “, voting of expenditure shall be per head after consideration in two stages: all the programmes on the one hand, and the detailed means per section and the item on the other hand”.

He regretted that nothing, as prescribed by the law, has been respected in the past three years.

“We have been having both programmes and resources jumbled together in both Committee and Plenary. This is violating these provisions of the law, most especially, the other important reason this bill should go back to the Finance Committee for a profound scrutiny,” Hon. Banadzem proposed.

His objection was overruled by the majority of the CPDM MPs. As usual, the members of the SDF Parliamentary Group walked out of the Hemi-cycle and refused to adopt the bills. The majority of the CPDM MPs adopted the 2015 budget that stands at FCFA 3746.6 billion. It was adopted after barely two hours of discussion at the plenary.

Speaking to the press, the MP of the Lebialem constituency in the Southwest Region, Hon. Bernard Foju, said the budget is realistic because it addresses the aspirations of Cameroonians. He said he voted it because remarkable allocations have been made for the fight against Boko Haram, the Ebola Virus as well as the provision of social amenities to Cameroonians.