Treasury Department distinguished for landmark reforms.

The institution clinched the distinction dubbed: “Innovation and Consistency Award,” during The Voice newspaper award ceremony, organised in Yaounde August 5.

It was stated that the Directorate General of Treasury won the prize “for its outstanding innovations, modernisation and decade of service for emergence, reform of the single-treasury system, interconnection of treasury stations, digitalisation of personnel management and optimising general resources”.

While receiving the award, Friday August 11, in Yaounde, the Director General of Treasury, Financial and Monetary Cooperation, Moh Sylvester Tangongho, thanked organisers for the honour. 

He said the Treasury Department was appreciative of the distinction before noting that “…I am happy that this award is honouring the whole Directorate of Treasury”.

Meanwhile, in justifying while his institution won the prestigious prize, the dynamic and results-oriented Treasury DG explained that: “We have been in the financial market since 2010. We have been struggling to diversify the sources of financing of the state. That has gone a long way to finance projects which before couldn’t have been financed with just resources from the Taxation Department, Customs Department or non-petroleum revenue. I think the Treasury Department deserves this award”.

Quizzed on what the Directorate of Treasury has in the offing, Moh Sylvester disclosed that “At the Treasury Department, there is no day, you can actually sit and cross your legs, and say you are satisfied”.

He furthered that: “We are talking about digitalization, which is something that is fast changing. We are currently working on a strategic plan of a ten-year vision for the treasury. The department is also working on the computerisation and amelioration of our intervention in the financial market”.

He explained that: “The Directorate General of the Treasury, Financial and Monetary Cooperation, is very vast. We have treasury management, public accounting, insurance, banks and microfinance institutions which are all under us. Every day, we are watching and trying to monitor them to make sure that there is no problem. You realise that whenever there is a problem with a microfinance institution, they rush to the Ministry of Finance and not COBAC. So, we have to follow up closely to make sure that there is a no crisis”.

Servicing internal debts 

During Friday’s interview, the Director General of Treasury also commented on the country’s debt situation. He disclosed that his institution is currently working on a series of reforms.

He said: “Within the CEMAC Subregion, the deadline for the payment of service providers’ bills is ninety days. We think that 90 days is much. So we have been paying for 60 days and below for a very long time but since the COVID crisis erupted, we have gone beyond 90 days”.

He then disclosed that: “Actually, we are engaged in some reforms which are destined to reduce payment deadlines to less than 30 days”.

“We did benchmarking mission last year in Cote D’Ivoire, Benin and Senegal, where we realised that they were paying bills in 72 hours. These are countries which are of the same level of development like Cameroon, so it is just a matter of making sure that the engagements are coherent with the treasury plan,” he added.

He explained that “if you have 3 million for example at the treasury, you have to make sure that the engagements shouldn’t be too far away from that amount. The engagements should follow the rhyme of the mobilisation of the revenue. So that is one of the reforms”.

“We also have outstanding payments which were a real headache before now because the budget used to exclude outstanding payments…in the budget. For example, during the first four months of 2023, we used 400 billion FCFA to settle outstanding payments of the previous year. We are working with the International Monetary Fund, IMF, to integrate these payments in the budget. This way, at the end of the year, you don’t have anything to be carried forward to the next year,” he concluded.

Treasury Department Waxing strong despite internal, external shocks 

Against all expectations, Cameroon’s Directorate General of Treasury, Financial and Monetary Cooperation, in the Ministry of Finance, is waxing strong. This, despite internal and external economic shocks. It is no longer a secret that the Anglophone crisis and the war against Boko Haram have seriously affected

Cameroon’s economic growth. 

For closed to ten years, there has been a huge expenditure on security and the situation also contributed to reducing revenue collection. This has been greatly witnessed in the brewery industry. 

The tax contributions of brewery companies have witnessed a drastic fall because of the security challenges in the two Anglophone Regions and the Far North Region. Notwithstanding these, the country’s emblematic and level-headed Director General of Treasury, Financial and Monetary Cooperation, Moh Sylvester Tangongho, and his team have still been able to regularly pay civil servants’ salaries, internal and external debts within record time.

Though the Directorate General of Treasury has given priority to the payment of civil servants’ salaries, they are not oblivious of payments due small and medium-sized enterprises otherwise known as service providers.

Even if the payments are not done within 60 days, the Directorate General of Treasury, makes sure that payments are done chronologically. Authorities in the Directorate General of Treasury say their key objective is to avoid any leakages in terms of expenditure. 

They have equally taken the firm and collective commitment to making sure that expenditure actually gets to the final destination.

In addition, the Treasury Department has opted to reduce cash payments and to ensure most payments are made by bank transfers. It makes meaning to recall that Cameroon remains the only country in the entire Central African Sub-region with a vibrant treasury that still honours all her local and international financial commitments.

Just recently, mayors lauded the Treasury Department for opening an account for councils at the Bank of Central African States, BEAC. This will permit councils to withdraw monthly, money collected for them through the additional, (Supplementary) Council Tax.

Only Vibrant Treasury in CEMAC 

Cameroon remains the only country in the entire Central African Subregion with a vibrant treasury that still honours all her local and international financial commitments. Leaders of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC; we gathered, have both publicly and privately taken turns to hail Cameroon’s economic resilience. 

It has now emerged that while other CEMAC countries are going through severe economic crisis that not only greatly hinder development in their respective countries, late payment of civil servants’ salaries, bills, nonpayment of loans from the Central Bank and failure to meet other local and international financial commitments,

such is not exactly the case with Cameroon.

While the accounts of most of the CEMAC countries at the Central Bank are in the red, Cameroon remains the only country with huge reserves at the Central Bank which can be withdrawn at any time the country is in dire financial need. 

It has now been established that though Cameroon is the hardest-hit CEMAC country by the fall in oil prices, Boko Haram attacks and the crisis in the North West and South West Regions, the country yet plays host to hundreds of thousands of refugees from Nigeria and the Central African Republic. Under normal circumstances therefore, Cameroon would have been experiencing more economic hardship than any other country in the CEMAC Subre

Innovations at the Directorate General of Treasury 

Among the major innovations that have occurred at the General Directorate of Treasury in recent years, there is the establishment of Specialised Payment Stations in Ministerial Departments that are intended to concentrate on

large volumes of payment files to be processed. This allows the fluidify of the processing of these files and to accelerate payments. The other major innovation is the refocusing of the treasury on the public securities market for the search of long-term financing, which the state generally sought on the stock market. 

This has not only allowed the state to lower cost, but also to save on procedural costs which are higher when la unching a bond issue for example. Experts speak of savings of up to 2% of the amount sought, which represents a very significant gain.

It should be said, without fear of being contradicted, that ever since the appointment of Moh Sylvester as the Director General of Treasury, Financial and Monetary Cooperation, the state treasury has never been declare d bankrupt or been in the red.

Described by even renowned foreign finance experts as the most corruption- free and the most job-compatible Director General of Treasury Cameroon has ever been blessed with, Moh Sylvester stands in a class of his own when it comes to managing and handling public finances during difficult moments like the ones Cameroon is currently experiencing.

Renowned economists are unanimous that Cameroon needed a nononsense, morally upright and corruption-free personality like Moh Sylvester to forestall the odds and set itself on the path to a more prosperous future.

Gifted with unmatched financial crisis- management abilities, Moh Sylvester comes under the scanner of a humble, unassuming, smart and highly talented senior state servant. 

The big advantage with Moh Sylvester is that he is in a class of his own when it comes to acting than talking. Take a trip to all the services in the Directorate General of Treasury and the proof stands out in your eyes.