(Business in Cameroon) - Some days ago, when they received their July 2020 salary, some physicians and health personnel operating for Cameroon noticed that their usual salaries had been cut by XAF2,400. Anguished by that fact, they saw this as a concealed wage cut carried out “despite the coronavirus” health crisis, a local media informed.

This is not the case, however. When we checked with the Ministry of Health, it appeared that this is rather an adjustment aimed at normalizing a special bonus of XAF2,400 that they have been receiving twice monthly over the last 18 years.

This is confirmed by the Ministry of Finance, which explains that this adjustment is the result of the public finance consolidation program that entered its implementation stage in 2018 with the physical counting operation COPPE launched to identify every civil servant on the state payroll. Authorized sources at the Ministry informed that over the last 18 years, this special bonus has been paid twice monthly on the salary of 4,490 health personnel making the public treasury lose about XAF2.5 billion during the period. 

With this adjustment then, the state is saving about XAF11 million monthly but, this is far less than the XAF35 billion it now saves monthly thanks to the COPPE.  

Indeed, thanks to the physical counting operation, the government has identified and removed fictitious civil servants from its payroll. It also uncovered some servants who were unduly receiving benefits and allowances.  

Brice R. Mbodiam