2016 State Budget: Programmes Under Identification

By Victorine BIY, Cameroon Tribune

A joint team of MINFI and MINEPAT experts are working with ministries to this effect.

Avoiding errors of the past is on government’s wish as it projects into the 2016 State Budget. 2015 marks the end of the implementation of the triennial results-based budget. 2016 therefore ushers the country into the second phase

of the programme budget. The time for a balance sheet is approaching and the Ministry of Finance and of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development have dispatched experts to ministries to start preparing for the 2016 State budget. The joint team ended a fine-tuning meeting in Yaounde yesterday March 4, 2015 after strategizing for 2016 budget.

The experts who are working from February 27 to Mach 31 are analyzing the performance of the different programmes as well as the political and socio-economic climate with the view to ensuring efficiency. Their focus for 2016 is on materializing the Contingency Plan so as to improve on the economic life of the State and persons. 

But what will be the influence of the Contingency Plan in the putting in place and implementation of other government programmes in 2016? The reflection pushed the experts to mirror on how to capitalize the stakes. The Head of Division for Prospection and Strategic Planning at MINEPAT, Hervé Lys Kwadjo said the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper, the December 31, 2014 speech of the Head of State, the strategic paper for the educational sector, the document on gender and other transversal documents of national interest are orientating their choices.

One of the problems that have retarded the execution of Public Investment Projects lies on the immaturity of projects and the teams are taking note of such shortcomings. Mr Kwadjo put stress on identifying with ministries only projects that have matured for 2016. But going by him, projects that could attain maturity by 2017 can be identified owing to the fact that the country is implementing the results-based budgeting, which spans for three years.

Above all, government is striving to prepare a budget that responds to the development objectives and most especially the needs of the population. “We are into a process,” Kwadjo said, recalling that there are concerns of insecurity in the northern part of the country “We have to respond to such challenges, taking into consideration the context and implications,” he concluded.