Corruption in Cameroon's Public Sector

Background Information on Cameroon’s Government

Cameroon is a republic dominated by a strong presidency (Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2013, 2013). Cameroon practices a multi-party system of government, but the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) has remained in power since its creation in 1985. The president of the republic retains the power to control legislation. The first ever Senate elections in Cameroon’s history held on the 14^th of April 2013, considered to have been free and fair. The CPDM Leader, Paul Biya, was re-elected in October 2011, and has been in power since 1982. The 2011 elections are rumored to have been flawed and marked by irregularities. 

Corruption in Cameroon

I believe corruption can be curbed in Cameroon’s public sector given that the government is putting in place solid measures to combat this cankerworm. The National Anticorruption Commission (CONAC) is the organization in charge of the combat of corrupt practices in the Cameroonian public sector. The corruption problem arises when a person considers that the potential benefit derived from the act is worth taking the risk of being caught and facing the applicable sanctions. Corruption often takes the form of a bribe (in Cameroon, it is often called: ‘gumbo’, ‘beer’, ‘taxi’, ‘fuel’, ‘tchoko’, ‘motivation’) and it can equally be considered as theft or fraud (Atangana, 2012).

Common acts of corruption in Cameroon are: the non-competitive attribution of import or export licenses, the appointment of persons into certain functions/positions based on familiarity or personal relations and not on merit. Corruption in Cameroon is such a widespread epidemic due to a lack of accountability, transparency, and rule of law in both private and public institutions (Human Rights Issues, 2014). Another contributing factor is endemic poverty, which pushes people to extort money from others in order to supplement their insufficient incomes.

Transparency International, the corruption watchdog published a report on the ‘Barometer of Corruption in Cameroon’ based on a poll of the Cameroonian citizens’ opinions. 1,182 Cameroonians took part in the survey. The report was published in Yaoundé, on the 9^th of December 2015, it stated that corruption had risen in the last year. This report was presented by the Transparency International – Cameroon Vice President, Barrister Njoh Manga. 57 percent of the sampled persons indicated that the Cameroonian government was ineffective in combating corruption. 44% of the sample were of the opinion that corruption had increased in the course of the past year. 

The 2015 corruption barometer report indexed taxation and police as the most corrupt sectors in the country (Transparency International Indicts Two Cameroonian Sectors, 2015). According to the said report, 48 percent of public service users testified that they had bribed in return for services rendered with the police and that the judiciary was more susceptible to bribe. Denunciation mechanisms were also deemed to be risky and inefficient with a high indication that whistle blowers are exposed to negative consequences. 

Works Cited

Atangana, P. R. (2012). Corruption and Structural Reforms in Cameroon. Research in World Economy, 3(2), 13. doi:10.5430/rwe.v3n2p7

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2013. (2013). Retrieved January 29, 2016, from state.gov: http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2013humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2013&dlid=220090#wrapper

Human Rights Issues. (2014). Retrieved January 29, 2016, from http://gci-cameroon.org/: http://gci-cameroon.org/about-cameroon/human-rights-issues/

Transparency International Indicts Two Cameroonian Sectors. (2015, December 10). Retrieved January 26, 2016, from cameroononline.org: http://www.cameroononline.org/transparency-international-indicts-two-cameroonian-sectors/