(Business in Cameroon) - In 2019, the National Civil Engineering Equipment Depot-Matgénie (which became a construction company in 2015) won XAF12.4 billion worth of contracts. However, it was able to carry out just XAF1.3 billion of billable works (just 11% of the contracts won), according to the report on public companies’ 2019 performance recently published by the  Technical Commission for the Rehabilitation of Public and Para public Sector Enterprises (CTR). 

"The marketing rollout initiated by the company since 2018 helps it secure a large order portfolio, which cannot be executed due to cash flow problems. These include road maintenance contracts, worth XAF15.7 billion, with various government agencies and private individuals. In the framework of those contracts, Matgénie is either a service provider or project owner and 81% of the contracts are for civil engineering works and 19% for studies," the CTR explains.

The reason for that low contract fulfillment rate is due to the poor financial situation of the company, which was previously a civil engineering equipment lessor.

According to the CTR report, Matgénie’s net cash decreased significantly between 2017 and 2019, from -XAF276.4 million to -XAF1.2 billion.

Also, the company whose comprehensive loss was a little over XAF3 billion in 2019 (against XAF2.6 billion and 1.3 billion losses respectively in 2017 and 2018) has operational and financial imbalances because its operating expenses are high while its supplier (XAF2.7 billion in 2019), fiscal (XAF3.8 billion) and social (XAF3.2 billion) debts have been accumulating.

Brice R. Mbodiam