"Sovereignty Expenditures" and the Accountability of the Executive Branch

By Dibussi Tande (Originally posted on Scribbles from the Den)

"As budget constraints have hardened, leaders have preferred to spend their money to keep their elite coalition together rather than invest in mundane activities like building schools or undertaking vaccine campaigns..." Van de Walle

While surfing through the Cameroonian blogosphere recently, I came across a blog post which gave a detailed breakdown of Cameroon’s 2010 budget. The first entry on the list was the budgetary allocation for the Presidency of the Republic which stands at 57,342 Billion Francs CFA – in fact over 63 Billion Francs CFA if you include the 6.677 Billion Francs CFA allocated to "Services attached to the Presidency of the Republic" – an annual budget greater than those of the Ministries of Higher Education (44 billion FCFA), Scientific Research and Innovation (13 billion FCFA), Energy and Power (44 Billion FCFA), just to name a few.

As I pondered over the Presidency’s budget, my mind went back to the controversy that erupted last year after the French media revealed that during a three-week trip to La Baule in France, President Biya and his entourage had allegedly spent $40,000 (£24,500) every single day at the five-star L'Hermitage Barriere hotel, bringing the total presidential bill to roughly half a million pounds.

The controversy instantly etched itself onto the well-known political/partisan fault lines in Cameroon with the president’s supporters crying foul and regime opponents virtually demanding that the president be burnt on the stakes for the crime of squandermania.

Expectedly, the Biya regime’s response to the revelations of the French press (relayed by the international media) and the ensuing outrage was swift, angry and defiant. In a strongly worded communiqué, Cameroon’s Minister of Communications and the Government Spokesperson, Issa Bakary Tchiroma, lashed out at manipulators working behind the scenes to tarnish the image of the President and insisted that:

Continue reading "'Sovereignty Expenditures and the Accountability of the Executive Branch' on Scribbles from the Den.

Comments

[Va Boy]

Their presidency budget is outsized for the same reason that they do not elect their governors (they just appointed a new crop today). They want to micromanage everything. They want their greedy finger in every pie. They fear separation of powers. They fear decentralization.