To hasten verification of councils’ accounts, attract investors: FEICOM launches Rapid Results Initiative.

Particularly as it concerns the processing of bills relating to investment projects in decentralised collectivities, the Director General of FEICOM, Camille Philippe Akoa, while launching the initiative September 18 in Yaounde, said IRA will work tirelessly to reduce the time taken by head office officials to process documents sent to them from decentralised collectivities.

Akoa admitted that FEICOM once worked with the National Anti-Corruption Commission, CONAC, specifically in 2017, on a similar idea. It worked only for a short period before officers fell back to their lackluster way of handling government business. As at then Akoa said they even succeeded in reducing the number of days a file stays in a government office to less than 30.

Delaying files over a prolonged period is an approach that does not just dampen the spirit of service beneficiaries, and thereby slowing down government business in decentralised collectivities, but also helps to drive away potential investors who want to do brisk and transparent business, Akoa asserted.

The FEICOM boss insisted that in an era when decentralised collectivities are expected to serve as conduits for the actualisation of the emergence vision of President Paul Biya by 2035, this demoralising atmosphere cannot continue to be tolerated, be it at the level of decentralised collectivities or at the level central services.

Therefore, IRA aims to reduce delay in verifying accounts and processing investment documents to under 20 days. So, officials at every level of administration, particularly those charged with handling files of decentralised collectivities, need to be sufficiently mobilised to sit up and respect deadlines that will be issued by FEICOM so that IRA records a huge success.

The FEICOM Director General assured collaborators that he will make available to them all the logistics and other resources they need to be able to carry out their new functions as they work in accordance with the tenets of the Rapid Results Initiative.

Akoa announced that he had sought the collaboration of a firm of experts in this domain, by name Integral Vocational Training Experts, who are ready to update line staff of the initiative so as to make sure that everyone on board is competent in the area he or she is supposed to provide services.

He said the experts will also work towards computerising processing of files and investment documents; at the same time updating the computer and other skills of principal actors.

Negative perception due to delay in processing files

The FEICOM boss remarked that when users of services deposit their documents and their processing is unnecessarily delayed, it becomes difficult to convince the users that the head office is operating in a transparent and corruption-free manner.

Even more, undue delay pushes those who have corrupt intentions to start offering incentives to officers so that their files could be given priority and treated as a matter of urgency.

The FEICOM boss said, without mincing words, that delaying the processing of documents in public offices gives impetus for corruption to thrive.

Akoa categorised FEICOM as an establishment that has taken many years to build its credibility. So, he added that it can no longer tolerate low standards, laziness, and compromise when it comes to efficient work and transparency.

Therefore, he said, FEICOM must continue to spread its knowhow and share with others the abundance of experience accumulated over these many years; already running into half a century.

Akoa therefore called on all collaborators to be ready for a change of mentality. Harping that the way of doing government business is undergoing a change where mediocrity, corrupt practices and other vices will no longer be tolerated, especially if IRA must work and usher in a new way of doing government business.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3234 of Thursday September 19, 2024