(Business in Cameroon) - Upon the presentation of the public spending review report, Feb. 6 in Yaoundé, Elisabeth Huybens (photo), World Bank’s operations manager in Cameroon, calls on the country to improve its public investment management system.

“The low maturity of projects, a still long and complex procurement process, and the delay in mobilizing counterpart funds contribute to longer delivery times for major infrastructure projects and thus delays the benefits of these structuring investments on the national economy,” the World Bank representative noted.

Moreover, she mentioned that the non-salary compensation system, set up to offset very weak formal salary level, benefits only a minority of public officials and leads to incentives conflicting the efficiency of public administration.

Based on the review's findings, Elisabeth Huybens said that an action plan for priority reforms of the public finance system was developed by the Cameroonian authorities in consultation with the World Bank team. “This action plan will serve as a basis for dialogue between our institution and the Cameroonian government,” she concluded.

S.A