Award of contracts: Fighting corruption with digital platform.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission, CONAC, in its 2018 report, classified the Ministry of Public Contracts as the most corrupt ministry in the country.

To combat the scourge, which often lead to abandoned contracts, inflated billings, poorly executed jobs and other malpractices, the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Public Contracts, Ibrahim Talba Malla, launched a national awareness campaign on October 10, 2024, in Yaounde.



The campaign focused on the use of a digital platform known as the Cameroon Online E-Procurement System, COLEPS, which was initiated in 2018, with financial support from the South Korean government.

The goal is to streamline contracting processes in public contracts while reducing face-to-face interactions among stakeholders as a way to curbing corruption.

It was intended to go fully operational by this year but it is lagging behind for reasons that include "the lack of interest shown by various government departments toward using COLEPS. For example, out of the 7,800 public contracts scheduled online in Cameroon in 2021, only 104 contracts were awarded through the platform, according to a report on the implementation of digital procedures presented on July 25, 2022, in Yaounde".

At a prime ministerial cabinet meeting presentation on February 24, 2022, Minister Talba Malla explained that the limited number of contracts processed digitally, compared to the total volume of public orders, was attributed to various technical constraints and resistance to change. Many stakeholders find electronic procedures complex and difficult to navigate, he said.

However, last week during the annual conference of heads of central and decentralised services of his ministry, Minister Talba Malla, announced the training and sensitisation meetings of all stakeholders, including those involved in the award of contracts, “so that in 2025, when the budget is launched, we can be operational”. 

He explained that "...we will gain in efficiency, performance and numbers…we want to ensure that before 2027, we would have moved everything online”. 

The system, he elaborated, allows “...us to go quickly, to go safely and also in an irreversible way”. 

It is unfortunate that a digital process initiated in 2018 is still to be fully operational, seven years after its initiation. The Guardian Post, in reluctantly conceding that it is better late than never, hopes that by 2027, the digital platform will be complete to reduce the rate of corruption in the award of public contracts, many of which are abandoned.

The astronomical rate of abandoning investment projects in Cameroon is alarming. 

Between 2021 and 2023, some 210 public contracts were abandoned by contractors without any justification, according to a statement by the Ministry of Public Contracts last November.

The execution rate may be an amelioration from the 414 contracts in a similar shameful situation in 2020. But the deplorable trend is a serious concern, given the negative impact on the population, especially considering the direct relationship between reaching projects’ objectives and the long-term development of the country.

Minister Talba Malla has ordered contractors to either resume work on abandoned projects or provide satisfactory justifications for delays within 21 days.

In his ultimatum, he stated that contractors were granted the period to either resume their works on the abandoned sites or submit legitimate documentation justifying their delays.

Failure to comply, he warned, will result in contract termination, with all accompanying legal consequences, including financial penalties and potential blacklisting.

The Ministry of Public Contracts in the release, highlighted several reasons for default such as: company’s failure to fulfil their contractual obligations; some abandon sites after beginning work, while others lack permanent offices or fail to establish reliable communication channels.

What the minister, however, did not say is that in some cases, it is the government to blame. Contractors often complain that there are cases where the State does not meet its financial obligation as stipulated in the terms of contracts.

In such cases, prices of material soar and when the projects are no longer profitable, they are abandoned. Digitalisation will only remedy the delay or abandonment of contracts, if government lives up to its billings. 

It will nonetheless curb corruption, while citizens who are direct beneficiaries of the projects would be able to go online and identify who projects are awarded to and hold them accountable for any lapses.

With such public scrutiny, The Guardian Post hopes merits and competence shall be taken into consideration in the award of public contracts; to guarantee efficiency in their execution for the development of the country. 

 

 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3352 of Tuesday January 28, 2025

 

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