Three-year Emergency Plan: Low-Cost Housing Projects To be Accelerated

 Below is a press statement from the Prime Minister’s office after yesterday’s cabinet meeting.

“The  Prime  Minister,  Head   of  Government, His  Excellency  Philemon YANG, this Thursday  1  March  2018  chaired  this  month's   Cabinet  Meeting at 3:00 p.m. at the  Prime Minister's Office.  Apart  from  his  close  aides,  the  meeting  was  attended by the Vice-Prime Minister, Ministers of State, Ministers,  Ministers Delegate and Secretaries  of State.

Two items featured on the agenda namely:
1.  Statement  by the  Minister  Delegate  at the  Presidency in charge,, of  Public  Contracts  on " stakes and prospects of dematerializing public procurement  procedures";

2.  Statement  by the Minister  of Housing  and Urban Development on "progress of the low-cost houses building  programme  and related public facilities under  the three-year emergency plan to accelerate economic growth";

Before giving the floor to the ministers concerned for their statements, the Prime Minister emphasized the instructions of the President of the Republic  who ordered  that missions  abroad for members of Government  and State agents  be reduced to the absolute minimum, just as the sizes of the delegations should. He said that journeys by air for Board Chairs, Administrators, Director  Generals  and the Deputy Directors  General of companies  and public  establishments, shall  be  in  business  class  and  shall  be  subject  to  the  prior  authorization  of  the  technical supervisory ministers and the Head of Government.

Concerning  State agents, the Prime  Minister  recalled  that their  travels  abroad on official missions shall be in economy  class and those who were exceptionally entitled to first class shall now  travel in business  class.  The  Prime  Minister instructed ministers and  the  Minister  of Finance  in particular to ensure the  strict compliance  of travel  classes  by State agents while waiting for the ongoing amendment  of the decree thereto related.

Following the introductory  statement  of the Head  of Government, the Minister  of Public Contracts  presented  the stakes  of the project to dematerialize  public  procurement procedures. This project, also called "e-procurement", is articulated in 3 phases which are part of a wide­ ranging programme to modernize the Cameroonian public procurement system, in order to make it more efficient in terms of speed, transparency and easing procedures.

Referring to the actions carried out with the support of the Korean cooperation under the first phase of the project, the Minister said that the platform to dematerialise documents used in bidding, called "Cameroon on fine e-procurement system" (COLEPS) was operational.  Through this platform, 1898 contracts were programmed   in 2017 and 177 tenders.

Furthermore,  the  legal  framework  governing the dematerialization of  procedures  was set  up, with the signing on 5 January  2018 of instruments to lay down regulations for use, and the terms and conditions for awarding contracts electronically  in Cameroon.

As for prospects, the Minister  of Public Contracts  announced  ongoing  works for the second phase of the project comprising: (i) the constitution  of a statistical  and economic database for the public contracts sector; (ii) development of computer modules to enable electronic signing of contracts,  monitoring   public  contracts   and on-line payment of related fees.  Moreover, the normative structure to ease the public procurement  procedures  needs to be boosted, and a pilot phase  to  experiment the project shall be done  in 2018  on selected ministries and  local administrations.

The Minister of Housing  and  Urban  Development then took the floor for a report on the progress of ...