By Ndi Eugene Ndi
The draft state budget for the 2024 fiscal year is currently under scrutiny with members of government defending the proposed budgets of their ministries for the upcoming year before members of the Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly.
The November ordinary session which is devoted principally to the scrutiny and eventual adoption of the budget opened since November 10, but the Hon Ayayi Moutymbo Rosette-led committee started examining the budget only on Friday December 1 after the government tabled it on the eve in flagrant violation of the law.
According to the law, Members of Parliament are supposed to be in possession of the draft state budget of the coming year 15 days before the opening of the budgetary session. The government therefore had to table the draft 2024 finance bill including its obligatory attachments before the Bureau of Parliament not later than October 26, 2023 it respected Law No 2007/006 of December 26, 2007 on the Finance Regime of the State.
Sadly, like in previous years, the government again violated the law this year submitting the bill nine days to the end of the budgetary session with lawmakers having just eight days to scrutinize and eventually adopt the budget.
The budget
The draft state budget for 2024 stands at FCFA 6,740.1 billion representing a 0.2% increase from the FCFA 6,726.9 billion of 2023.
The budget was drawn up within the context of disturbing internal and external economic shocks including fluctuation in oil prices on the international market – in part caused by global crises like the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze.
In keeping with Section 34(1) of the Constitution which obliges the Prime Minister, Head of Government to present the government's economic, financial, social and cultural programme for the subsequent year at the National Assembly, Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute was at the Lower House of Parliament following the tabling of the draft 2024 state budget Thursday November 30 evening.
During a late plenary chaired by House Speaker, Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, Dion Ngute said the budget was drawn up with the assumption of a GDP growth rate of 4.5 per cent and an inflation rate of 4 per cent.
Opposition obstructs but fails to stop PM
The plenary to present government’s programme for the coming year did not start as scheduled as some members of the minority opposition in the ruling party-dominated National Assembly earlier blocked the Head of Government from mounting the rostrum.
Led by Hons Cabral Libii of Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation (PCRN), Koupit Adamou of the Cameroon Democratic Union (CDU), the opposition MPs argued that the Government had not respected the law and should take back the document.
The protest by the opposition minority of the House forced the Speaker, Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril to suspend the sitting for some 45 minutes.
During the recess, the protesting opposition MPs were called for a meeting out of the hemicycle that was not opened to journalists. It was then that Hon Joshua Osih of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) who is also Questor at the National Assembly joined his peers of the opposition.
NewsWatch was unable to get what was discussed during the meeting that was also attended by the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in Charge of Relations with Assemblies, François Wakata Bolvine besides the PM, his accompanying delegation and the striking opposition MPs.
However, the session resumed, the opposition MPs walked out of the hemicycle allowing the PM to present the program unperturbed, though only to the majority ruling party members of the House.
Preventing embezzlement
Dion Ngute noted that over the last few years, Cameroon has been affected by a fairly unfavourable international and national situation, “marked in particular by numerous health, security and food crises, not to mention the Russian-Ukrainian conflict with worldwide consequences,” he said.
However, despite the persistence of the external and internal shocks, Cameroon has, on the whole, demonstrated its resilience in tackling the many development challenges it faces, “in order to stay the course, set by the Head of State for its Emergence by 2035,” Dion Ngute said.
The prospects for government action in the 2024 fiscal year, the Head of Government said will be to provide Cameroon with a robust "impact budget" based on the assumption of a GDP growth rate of 4.5 per cent and an inflation rate of 4 per cent.
With regard to the safeguarding of public funds, “focus will be on strengthening measures to prevent embezzlement of public funds and initiating technical assistance protocols binding the Supreme State Audit Office to companies and public bodies,” Dion Ngute told Members of the National Assembly.
He said the Government will intensify control of the award and execution of public contracts, by increasing inspection missions and by reinforcing observation within reception and technical reception committees.
“In addition to unannounced inspection visits to sites, Government will focus on effectively categorising companies in the construction and public works sector,” the Head of Government said.
Preserving territorial integrity
At the security level, Dion Ngute said government actions for 2024 will be geared towards strengthening measures to preserve the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Cameroon. He said focus will equally be on optimizing the security network across the national territory as well as modernizing existing infrastructure and equipment.
The presentation it should be noted followed the adoption of two bills giving President Biya the power to ratify military, defence and security agreements with Russia and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as part of a diversification of the country’s defence partnership.
The Government intends to continue modernizing judicial infrastructure, through the completion of several complexes and courts under construction, Dion Ngute said as part of priorities in the justice sector for 2024. He added that same will apply for the improvement of the prison policy.
3,000 primary school teachers to be recruited
Dion Ngute said the Government will pursue its policy of rehabilitating, building and equipping school infrastructure as part 2024 priorities in the Basic Education sector. “In addition, 3,000 new teachers will be recruited,” he said adding that 2.5 million essential school textbooks and 2.4 million school kits for young girls will be distributed free of charge in the coming year.
Similarly, in the Secondary Education sector, Government plans to continue building and equipping Technical and Professional Agricultural High Schools, as well as transferring powers to the regions to develop infrastructure.
With regard to Higher Education, Government will focus on increasing in-take especially in the State Universities newly established by the President of the Republic.
Worthy to note that the Head of State in January last year created three new universities bring the number of state universities in the country to 11, though chronic lack of adequate infrastructure.
“Emphasis will also be placed on developing students’ sense of creativity, initiative and entrepreneurship, through the promotion of business incubators, start-ups and junior enterprises based on student initiatives to facilitate socio- professional integration,” the head of Government said.
In the area of Scientific Research and Innovation, Government will focus its activities on intensifying research and development, Dion Ngute said.
Ministers have been defending their budgets
At the time of this report on Sunday December 3, more than half of the Ministers scheduled had already defended their budgetary allocations before the Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly.
If the 2024 state budget is eventually adopted as expected at the National Assembly, it will be forwarded to the Senate for a similar exercise. And this has to be done by Friday December 8 as the ordinary session will wrap up on Saturday December 9.
First published in NewsWatch newspaper No. 165 of Monday December 4, 2023.
