In Cameroon, the accountability of public funds continues to face persistent opacity. For the 2024 fiscal year, the Supreme Court’s Chamber of Accounts could only trace a mere 3% of the total subsidies disbursed by the state to public enterprises. This stark figure, highlighted in its report on the execution of the finance law, underscores the significant information deficit hindering Cameroonian financial judges in their certification mandate.
Report highlights challenges in public transfer traceability
The financial jurisdiction, tasked with judicial oversight of state accounts and public institutions, relies on supporting documents provided by authorizing officers and beneficiary entities. However, out of the entire volume of financial assistance granted to Cameroon’s public portfolio in 2024, only a minuscule portion could be definitively linked to an identified beneficiary and documented execution. The remaining 97% effectively fall outside the scope of verification for financial magistrates.
This statistic is far from trivial; it strikes at the core of a structural governance challenge: the state’s capacity to monitor the utilization of resources transferred to its various arms. State-owned companies, administrative public establishments, and entities with majority or strategic state participation annually receive substantial allocations, presented variously as balancing subsidies, investment grants, or tariff compensations.
Public portfolio under budgetary strain
Cameroon’s parastatal sector encompasses dozens of enterprises operating in crucial strategic sectors: energy, hydrocarbons, transport, telecommunications, agro-industry, and water. Many are structurally dependent on state financial support to sustain their daily operations or meet their obligations, exemplified by the Société nationale des hydrocarbures (SNH), Camair-Co, and Sonara, whose financial struggles frequently necessitate high-level state arbitration.
Amidst pressure on public finances, driven by the need to keep the budget deficit below thresholds agreed upon with the International Monetary Fund (FMI) under the ongoing program, effective control over subsidy channels becomes a critical public policy imperative. The economic and financial program supported by Washington explicitly emphasizes transparency in financial flows between the Treasury and public entities, viewing it as essential for credible fiscal consolidation management.
The Chamber of Accounts’ findings emerge even as Yaoundé has committed to enhancing the reporting of accounting information from public enterprises as part of its public finance management reforms. The establishment in 2017 of a dedicated directorate within the Ministry of Finance to monitor the state’s portfolio was specifically intended to bolster this oversight. Yet, concrete results have been slow to materialize.
A matter of budgetary sovereignty
Beyond mere accounting exercises, the inability to document the destination and actual use of nearly all public subsidies undermines several strategic initiatives. It limits the scope of parliamentary debate on the budget settlement law, curtails the Supreme Court’s warning function, and deprives multilateral donors, notably the World Bank and the African Development Bank (BAD), of a reliable basis for calibrating their budgetary support.
For private investors, particularly those involved in public-private partnerships or concession contracts with Cameroonian public entities, this opacity introduces an additional risk factor. The quality of sovereign credit is also measured by the robustness of internal control mechanisms for budgetary transfers. Nevertheless, by publishing these findings, the Chamber of Accounts fulfills its watchdog role and publicly demands compliance.
The message to the executive is unambiguous: without substantial improvements in information reporting, the certification of state accounts will remain a partial exercise. Practically, this necessitates the widespread adoption of a standardized accounting framework for public enterprises, the reliability of budgetary information systems, and the effective application of sanctions against defaulting executives.
