Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) that are part of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in Cameroon have taken a commitment to continue holding government responsible in line of transparent management of resources gotten from the extractive industries to the benefit of local communities were the resources are extracted especially within the decentralization era that country is presently in.
The CSOs made the declaration Tuesday 30 March 2021 in a press conference they organised at the National Episcopal Conference in Yaounde. The presser focused on presenting the results of a study carried out by the Publish What You Pay Coalition on the traceability of sub-national transfers for the benefit of regional and local authorities.
The media outing also touch on challenges facing them as EITI members vis-à-vis government’s delay in the publication of EITI 2018 conciliation reports which risk Cameroon being suspended as per the 31 March 2021 deadline issued by the EITI Board.
A January 18, 2021 EITI Board decision observed that Cameroon has been weak in implementing its recommendations from 2018-202 thereby causing the board to add 15 new corrective measures concerning fifteen requirements relating to the 2019 standard for Cameroon before her third validation by April 1, 2023.
It is on the basis of this lackluster performance in the implementation of the EITI in Cameroon, together with 15 recommendations, some of which are particularly aimed at CSOs that the latter has committed to assume its role to fully, effectively and actively get government from sleep in engaging the EITI process.
Addressing reporters at the opening, the National Coordinator of PWYP Coalition, Binla Shulika Sylvanus blamed the three months delay in their activities to the COVID-19 pandemic which has slowed activities and deliberations of funders.
Shulika noted that despite permissions to have Cameroon postpone publications of her reports, the implementation of EITI in Cameroon is still dormant even though the extractive sector is being earmarked as a pillar of development.
This he said warrants questioning of transparency of subnational payments which is normally supposed to be a source of income to local communities especially within the present context of decentralization.
The CSOs decried the lack of text of applications in laws that push government and public entities to publish what they pay, poor working relations between the permanent secretariat appointed by government through the Minister of Finance who serve as presidents, insufficient presence of CSOs within the committee, and failure of government to respect proposed membership quotas and the absence of two-third majority to vote decisions among many others as major drawbacks.
The study results presented PWYP technical secretary of Dongmo Bernard revealed that ignorance of locals on payment of royalties, lack of participation on royalties financed projects, non-control of councils, insufficient information recording and archiving, abusive use of professional secrecy by producers, poor reporting on subnational transfers, unavailability of information, lack of monitoring of deductions and repayments among others as key factors affecting traceability and transparency in the sector.
The study recommended the adoption of the regulatory text as provided for in article 176 sub 3 of the mining code on the terms of distributing tax by the Prime Minister, improvement in reporting sub-national transfers by Director Generals of the Treasury, Financial and Monetary Cooperation, awareness raising of taxpayers, integration of councils into the conciliation perimeter, regular monitoring of council transfers and awareness in communities on issues of sub-national transfers as some ways to find solutions in the sector.
By Doh Bertrand Nua
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