(Business in Cameroon) - The Cameroonian government is spending XAF1,058 billion in salaries, bonuses and other benefits for its employees this year, up from XAF1,024 billion in 2018, an increase by XAF34 billion.

The forecast table of State’s financial operations (Tofe), presented at the recent annual conference of heads of central, external and decentralized services of the Ministry of Finance, showed that this line of expenditure which the government has been trying to keep in check for years, will explode again during the period 2019-2021.

Indeed, State spending related to employees are forecasted to reach XAF1,128.1 billion next year, XAF70 billion higher than in 2019, before expanding by XAF58 billion to reach XAF1,186 billion in 2021. The largest share of the money is directed to salaries and pensions which many public officials often receive unduly.

As proof, a physical counting operation of Cameroonian government personnel, conducted between 20 April and 10 July 2018, revealed that of the more than 310,000 public officials in registers, only just over 285,000 were actually active.

According to the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, who spoke on the matter during the Cabinet Meeting on 27 December 2018, the payment suspensions that followed this discovery made it possible to save XAF394.7 million per month, or XAF4.7 billion a year.

A former minister of finance reported the department saved XAF5 billion per month, following a first payment suspension carried out more than 10 years ago.

Brice R. Mbodiam