The computer system for the management of state personnel of the second generation (Sigipes II) of Cameroon will finally be designed by the Tunisian company Simac (Société de l'informatique de management et de communication). This was decided by the internal commission for the award of contracts of the Ministry of Public Service, whose result of work after counting and analysis of bids of pre-qualified companies was presented this May 17, 2021 in the Cameroonian capital.

The Tunisian company mentioned above has a period of 24 months to design the new version of Sigipes 2, for a total amount of 4.2 billion CFA francs, we learn from good sources. But the award of this new contract should not overshadow the scandal that surrounds this government project, whose completion was initially scheduled for 2016. Michel Ange Angouing, then Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reform, had made a firm promise in 2014. Before confessing, during the cabinet meeting of March 30, 2017, the inability of the consortium Cameroon Audit-CBL Consulting, the successful bidder for the contract, to meet its contractual commitments.

Based on this failure, Philemon Yang, the Prime Minister at the time, ordered an audit on March 30, 2017, on this new computerized system that has, initially, swallowed 7.6 billion CFA francs granted by the European Union (EU). "Regarding Sigipes II, work has been done and the conclusions have been transmitted to whom it may concern, and we are waiting for the new orientations of the hierarchy to this effect," said the current Minister of Public Service, Joseph Lé, during an inter-ministerial committee for the review of programs (Ciep), on August 17, 2018 in Yaounde.

A loss of nearly CFAF 8 billion

This member of the government will return to the charge, on July 28, 2020, during the first session of the Committee in charge of the assistance of the provider, monitoring and control of the implementation of the Sigipes 2. "It has become clear that the foundations on which the first phase of this major project was based were particularly fragile. The choice of contractor proved to be ill-advised, as the selected consortium broke up before the start of the operational phase, and the remaining party's expertise in the required field was questionable. Its failure was therefore not a surprise', revealed Minister Joseph Lé, before adding: 'the bad start of Sigipes 2 was also due to the shortcomings of the specifications (...) which cruelly suffered from the lack of expertise and vision of its drafters'.

Since this failure, which caused the state to lose nearly 8 billion CFA francs, the government, through the Ministry of the Civil Service, has been working to select a new service provider. Nothing is known about the outcome of the botched contract with the Cameroon Audit-CBL Consulting consortium.  

According to government authorities, Sigipes II will put an end to the various frauds perpetrated on the State's payroll, which cause the Treasury to lose several billion CFA francs each year. In concrete terms, the new system consists of a merger of the State's pay file, managed by the Ministry of Finance, and the file of public agents, managed by the Ministry of Public Service. Its deployment, we learn, will increase transparency in the remuneration of state personnel.

The current system, in addition to having revealed dysfunctions making the control of the phenomenon of assignment of public officials, their mobility between different ministries, abandonment of posts and other deaths of state personnel, "poses (...) the problem of database for a good analysis of historical information on staff and pay, which makes it difficult to conduct retrospective studies to better formulate salary policies," said the document designed by the Ministry of Finance, in advance of the budgetary orientation debate (DOB) 2021.

Source : investiraucameroun.com