The Cameroonian and Ivorian governments are engaged in public expenditure reduction operations through vast censuses targeting public servants.
The Cameroonian and Ivorian governments are engaged in public expenditure reduction operations through vast censuses targeting public servants.
In Cameroon, the campaign which will extend from 10 August to 10 October2011, requires public servants, contract officers and subordinate staff to register on line from their workstations. A mapping of public administration employments will thus help to efficiently keep the wage bill under control, facilitate the monitoring of movements and carriers of each employee, as well as assess the needs in personnel. The latter objective could lead to the elimination of jobs, including fictitious ones, in order to reduce public expenditure.
In Côte d'Ivoire, the government is also engaged in a widespread vetting campaign through a census concerning some 132 732 public servants. Launched on 29 August and effective since 1st September, the operation which will last about ten days, is meant to help uncover and eliminate the numerous fictitious jobs.
The Ivorian Public Service and Administrative Reform Minister, Gnamien Konan, laid emphasis on the need to cut public expenditure through greater public employment transparency: « Paying public servants is very expensive for the State, which would henceforth like to know whether all those it pays effectively work », he explained.
Apart from the administrative aspect of the campaign, the exercise also targets the reduction of public service costs.
The Minister stated that the « annual wage bill is close to 800 billion CFAF (1.2 billion Euros) », which represents about 41% of tax receipts. And yet, «the community standard (within the West African Economic and Monetary Union, (editor's note) provides that salaries should not exceed 35% of tax receipts ».