Editorial: When criminals in military uniforms bleed treasury.

According to a communique made public last Thursday by the Chief of Division for Communication and Public Relations in the Ministry of Finance, Yves Assala, MINFI has observed that the State had lost approximately 35 billion FCFA, or 3.1 billion FCFA per year, through fraudulent practices by some unscrupulous military and police pensioners from 2010 to 2021.

The appalling discovery was triggered by concerns that the amount of money for the payment of children's allowance should decline as they get older and off the benefits. But it was instead spiking.

Legally, children of army personnel, aged 16 and below, enjoy such allowance while those of their serving police counterparts stop drawing benefits when the child reaches the age of 20.

Alarmed by the rising bill for the allowance, the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, ordered an audit, which report divulged that among the uniform personnel who went on retirement and were enjoying this benefit over the 10-year period in review, 12,846 files had fake birth certificates, as certified by civil status registration centres that were indicated. 

Out of this number, 4,300 police retirees were affected; while 3,842 soldiers and widows of deceased soldiers were also implicated. As a consequence, all allowances were suspended from July 29, 2024.

Describing the suspension as a "precautionary measure," the Finance Ministry noted that to stop this bleeding imposed on the public treasury, a litigation office was immediately opened to receive claims from pensioners who felt aggrieved. “The Minister of Finance invites all pensioners concerned to kindly take advantage of the litigation phase, which is opened, and which will continue until the end of October 2024, in order to provide those responsible for this task with their ministerial department the elements enabling them to now ensure payment on a legal basis of their increased allowance for children,” the communique indicated.

The litigation office is reported to have been opened "since July 29, 2024, in the premises of Block A of the Ministry of Finance, where the files, including regular birth certificates and all authentic supporting documents are received and examined”. 

“To date, out of 110 files received via the said system, 52 have had a favorable response, resulting in particular, in the restoration of their increase during the pay for the month of August 2024, with a balance for the month of July. 

As for the others, their claims continue to be examined, either through the presentation of authenticated acts or through the completeness of their files,” the statement explained.

It is regrettable that defence and security officials, who should be investigating fraudulent cases, have themselves turned into fraudsters, using fake birth certificates to rip off the public treasury.

They certainly may not be the only corps involved in the scam. There have in the past been reports of civilian civil servants faking birth certificates for non-existent children to steal children’s allowances. 

Those who die still get salaries or pensions under the pretence that they are still living. Others have abandoned their jobs for greener pastures abroad but are still receiving their salaries regularly.

What is curious with the current audit is that it spans a period of 10 long years. It may be understandable, given that the oil wells were flowing but today the flows are comparatively just dripping, the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the war in Ukraine, have combined to exacerbate the declining revenue of the state.

Debts are crushing, and in need of cash, Yaounde is streamlining expenditure and has had to look back 10 years to discover that some 3.1 billion FCFA was being pilfered every year up to 2021. 

If the audit is extended to 2023, the government could be talking of over 40 billion FCFA in the drain, which is enough to build a moderate modern hospital in each of the country's ten Regions.

The Guardian Post commends the Minister of Finance for the initiative, which should continue with yearly audits. 

It is unfortunate that fraud has been pervasive in the public service, despite computerised methods to stop it.

In the past, civil servants caught in such thefts have been ordered to reimburse the stolen amounts. 

It is in very few cases that culprits have been jailed like that of the former Director of Salaries in the Ministry of Finance, who was slammed a total of 104 years in the dungeon for creating 2,601 fake salary accounts which he used for himself. 

Such excruciating sanctions deter other pilferers, whose amounts may not be much but when considered that hundreds of crooks do that, they pierce a deep hole in the national purse.

That is why the ministry should not only recover the money the men and women in uniforms, without scruples, have scooped through fraudulent means, but should make them face the sharp sword of justice and serve as deterrent for others.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3212 of Wednesday August 28, 2024