President Biya and the French Secretary of State for Development and Francophonie, André Vallini, recently held what both men described as “intensive and productive discussions”.  Cameroon Concord News learned from government sources that President Paul Biya stressed on bilateral cooperation, the fight against terrorism and the going-on within the European Union.

Speaking of the Development and Debt Reduction Contract (C2D) with his guest, André Vallini, the Cameroonian dictator revealed that the cooperation formula has been “useful, efficient, virtuous and concrete.”  Beyond the C2D, André Vallini reaffirmed the commitment of France to participate in the development of Cameroon.

Biya also called for greater coordination in the fight against international terrorism and hinted that there was an urgent need for intelligence sharing among countries of Europe, Africa and the United States.  The French minister was accompanied during the Unity Palace audience by a large delegation including the French ambassador to Cameroon, Christine Robichon.

Minister Vallini is expected to sign the third Debt Reduction-Development Contract, aimed at supporting the Cameroon’s development. He will travel to Douala today to inaugurate major urban development projects and sign an agreement with the urban community on the “Douala Sustainable City” project. Lastly, he will inaugurate the new premises of the Pasteur Center of Cameroon for Clinical Research on Malaria and will visit the “Foyer de l’espérance” in Yaoundé, a benchmark institution for the reception, protection and reintegration of children and young people.

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai (Cameroon Concord News)

The National Assembly after scrutinizing the new penal code transmitted it to the Upper House where senators worked for five hours unending to examine the text. It was adopted despite the disapproval of the Social Democratic Front whose members staged a walk out. During the 28th June 2016 session the SDF Senators once again expressed discontentment with certain articles of the bill tabled for adoption.

The party insisted for some articles to be dropped but their views were not taken into consideration. Even though they abandoned the discussion table, deliberations continued and after five hours, the bill was adopted. Those who disapproved of the new penal code pointed out to specific articles therein. Most of those against, argued that the new law favours the rich.

A critical reading of the new text gives the impression that the Ministers are being emboldened unlike the former law where immunity was restricted only to parliamentarians, but now the law extends this immunity to members of government. The two months unpaid rents which leads to an eviction of the tenant, the con say, have been tailored to favor the landlord. The issue of adultery which many believe is a private family affair do not favor the husband who is considered the all powerful within the family circles.

These and other articles of the penal code especially that which relates to religious deceit are some issues that have not gained total approval. That notwithstanding, the Senate worked long hours this Tuesday, June 28 and adopted all 370 articles of the bill that was defended by the Minister of Justice, Keeper of the Seal, Laurent Esso.

CRTV

Alfred Etom, is the Coordinator of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy, a body operating within the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) In a recent conversation with Cameroon Tribune, he speaks of the National Anti-Corruption Commission 2014 report! He says over 20 billion FCFA has been recovered.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission’s 2014 Anti-Corruption Status Report unveils fabulous sums of State funds embezzled. How much of these embezzled funds have been recovered?

Alfred Etom: Let me first recall that this report does not only contain activities carried out by the NACC, but also by other ministries and institutions with the aim of fighting corruption. In 2014, the Special Criminal Court recovered more than FCFA 7 billion. More than FCFA 3 billion was recovered by the Supreme Court. The Council for Financial and Budgetary Discipline also recovered more than FCFA 3 billion.

Vote holders were fined to the tune of FCFA 70 million, while NACC recovered FCFA 6 billion this year. So, nearly FCFA 20 billion of ill-gotten funds have been recovered since 2014. Specifically, the funds were recovered on the national territory. Although the process of recovering ill-gotten wealth hidden abroad is complex, it is ongoing.

Does this indicate an evolution in the recovery of embezzled State’s assets?

Alfred Etom: Yes, because Cameroonians are more and more cooperative. At the beginning, it was not easy, but they have noticed that we are committed. Once NACC is after you, we do not give up until we have the expected results. Now that we have developed our visibility, Cameroonians have a greater tendency to trust us. And this trust is motivation for us to keep working. This also accounts for the results achieved so far.

What are some of the challenges in this task?

Alfred Etom: One of the challenges we have to overcome is that we do not have regional branches. For us to carry out an effective fight to downscale corruption, we have to be close to the population. When people send us their tip-offs, it takes time for NACC to react just because we are far from them. It slows down the process and frustrates those who report corruption cases.

The report also talks of only 27 per cent rate of implementation of Regional Anti-Corruption Action Plans. What is your take on this?

Alfred Etom: The 27.3 per cent was in 2014. Then, we thought there was no real will to tackle the issue of corruption in the regions for many reasons. One of the reasons is that Regional Inspectorates of Service were not well-equipped to carry out anti-corruption actions, initiatives and investigations. Secondly, there was also lack of will to combat corruption because they thought that NACC only fought against big corruption, which is wrong. The third reason is that they themselves fed on corruption. It is difficult for somebody who feeds on corruption to fight corruption. Ever since, the situation has improved to about 30 per cent today. Things have improved.

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Cameroon Tribune

Dieudonné Massi Gams, the CPDM President of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (CONAC) has made public his salary to the media. The Biya chosen man of God made the revelation on Monday, June 27, 2016 in Yaounde, the nation’s capital. The president of CONAC earns a monthly salary of 7 million FCFA (10,671.43 euros). Dieudonne Massi Gams boasted in front of journalists shedding tears when the amount was revealed that “My salary is seven (7) million FCFA per month for me not to be corrupt.”

The salary of Pastor Dieudonné Massi Gams, is 193 times higher than the guaranteed minimum wage which is set at 36,270 FCFA since July 2014 in Cameroon—– a CPDM privilege to the so called man of God but an injustice in a country where the applicable average wage is between 80 and 100 thousand FCFA. In addition to his salary, Rev. Dieudonné Massi Gams, has huge benefits, which he blatantly refused to disclosed to the press. Cameroon Concord News Yaounde city reporter who contributed to this report observed that, “Rev Massi Gams has no reason to envy some ministers who officially earn less than 800 000 FCFA per month, but the bribes exceed the limits of the imaginable”.

We gathered intelligence that the state takes care of his phone expenses, housing allowance, several vehicles for child and wife including fuel cost.   The servants and guards including his many drivers loaded at the residence of the President of the CONAC are also paid by the Cameroonian tax payer. Despite these advantages granted by the CPDM crime syndicate to CONAC, corruption in the country is increasing at alarming proportion with some agents of CONAC including its leadership regularly quoted in local press for bribery and corruption scam.

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai (Cameroon Concord News Group)

Five people have been reportedly killed in an accident in Kumba, the chief town in Meme Division in the South West region. Cameroon Concord News gathered from police sources that the brakes of a caterpillar failed at Hill Top as the road construction machine was descending to Fiango.  With no warning system on board the caterpillar, it eventually crushed many people on bikes before the driver succeeded to direct it to a building hosting a popular hotel known as K-Town Hotel in Fiango.

Five people were killed on the spot and many others seriously injured. Some of the wounded cases have been transferred to hospitals in Buea and Douala. Life will never be the same again for a little girl of about 8 yrs who had her legs chopped off in the accident. At the time of filing this report, our correspondent in Kumba reported that some of the victims have died at the Kumba General Hospital.

Cham Victor Bama (Cameroon Concord News Group)