Over 62 newly recruited finance staff belonging to the budgeting, taxation and treasury departments drawn from all administrative Divisions of the Southwest and Northwest Regional Delegations of Finance under the Ministry of Finance, MINFI, have been trained on the effective management of public finance and its sustainability.

The aim of the workshop was to combat what was referred to as amateurish human resource in the sector. The four-day capacity building workshop, which was held from July 22-25, at the Pan African Institute for Development-West Africa, PAID-WA had as theme; “Career and Sustainability”.

Speaking during the training, the Southwest Regional Controller of Finance, Alice Nouboue, noted that the capacity-building workshop was as a result of the Region’s insufficiency of financial human resource. Se hinted that though Government’s recruitment of 25,000 youths partly solved the difficulty, it became more devastating when they realised that these personnel lacked basic knowledge in finance.

“After a period of about a year, it clearly appeared that the problem was partially solved; we received the ‘quantity’ not the ‘quality’. That is why the Minister deemed it necessary to complete the training of this new staff by sending some qualified experts to perform this training exercise in Buea,” Nouboue explained.

The Secretary General at the Governor’s Office, Clement Fondikum who officiated at the opening ceremony on behalf of Southwest Governor, Bernard Okalia Bilia, implored participants to uphold excellent morals and honesty when drafting strategic guidelines in the sector.

“Finance is an audacious sector that needs careful management and if the MINFI is setting out for a workshop of this magnitude, especially to train these young controllers, then, it’s a good initiative,” Fondikum noted.

The Secretary-General urged the participants to take the training very seriously, so as to combat all forms of financial constraints in the region in particular and Cameroon as a whole. “The Ministry is doing everything possible to reduce the difficulties the region faces in recovering state finances by training these newly recruited staff, so participants should endeavour to become professionals, while assisting the Ministry in fulfilling its goals,” the Senior Civil Administrator advised.

Facilitators during the forum engaged participants in a training exercise especially those at the finance control unit on administrative ethics, public service legalities, treatment of pension and salaries files, professional modalities and above all their rights and obligations as civil servants.

Participants were also taught as part of their duties, to recover state funds, using all possible legal means, respect settlement bills, conserve public funds and values, handle and manage accounts and much more.

Going by a facilitator, Caroline Nnalum, who drilled participants on their responsibilities as accountants, said accountants have to respect deadlines, get associated to the civil, penal and disciplinary duties. Nonetheless, a participant from the Southwest Regional Delegation of Finance, John Mukete, told this Reporter that there were lots of areas they needed to acquire knowledge in.

Mukete said that the seminar has helped them a lot, especially in equipping them with knowledge on sustainability of budgets in the Region. “There are a lot of texts we don’t know about especially in budgeting, accounting, execution of budgets, and other circulars of Government expenditures like Missions and Bills which this workshop has furnished us with maximum knowledge on,” Mukete said.

Another participant Mercy Chebe from the Bamenda treasury said that the program was timely, adding that, as inexperienced as they are this has given them an opportunity to familiarize themselves on administrative ethics and deontology.

Meanwhile, Ferdinand Agbor from the Mamfe Divisional Treasury and Melvin Sakwe from the Mundemba Divisional Treasury gratified the MINFI for adding meaning to the career and for giving them an opportunity to liaise with other colleagues.

The Director of Human Resource, MINFI, Desire´ Itike, representing the Minister at the close of the workshop, challenged participants to exhibit assiduity, enthusiasm and involvement in carrying out their responsibilities, so as to curb all unethical practices in the career.