Below is the final press release following the government seminar at the Prime Minister's Office on Friday, January 31, 2014.

"His Excellency Philemon YANG, Prime Minister, Head of Government, chaired a Government Seminar devoted to the approval of performance tools and methods in Government work, on Friday 31 January 2013 as from 8:30 am in the Prime Minister's Office.

Besides his close collaborators, the meeting was attended by the Vice Prime Minister, Ministers of State, Ministers, Ministers Delegate and Secretaries of State.

Three items featured on the agenda, namely:

1. A special statement of the Prime Minister, Head of Government;

2. A statement of the Secretary General at the Prime Minister's Office on "roadmaps as tool for Government performance";

3. A statement of the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development on "The major thrusts and stakes of the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper (GESP)."

In his keynote address, the Head of Government noted that this Seminar aimed at enabling a better ownership of performance levers for optimal implementation of the policy programme defined by the Head of State. He stressed the urgent need for vertical and horizontal cohesion in government action, before highlighting the core values that underpin the effectiveness of public and State action policies, namely the permanent quest for general interest, selflessness and the pride of place of the public service.

Speaking after the Prime Minister, the Secretary General at the Prime Minister's Office indicated that the roadmaps of the ministries are real Government performance tools. Their prescription by the President of the Republic is to facilitate and optimise the management of the major actions of government services in a given year, hence the need to own the methods that govern the drafting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of these instruments. He recalled that, in accordance with the constant instructions of the President of the Republic, the drafting of roadmaps is the responsibility of ministers. Actions therein should result from the official commitments of the President of the Republic in his official addresses and in programme budgets, which feature in the priorities of GESP.

With regard to the implementation and follow-up of the roadmap, he noted that the procedures relating thereto start with the fiscal year, since the actions that underpin them derive from the programme budget. Coordination meetings should be held regularly and field trips conducted in order to ensure the progress of planned activities and remove barriers that may impede its smooth implementation.

Finally, he stressed on the systematization of biannual and annual self-assessment of the roadmap, which is the duty of the ministers. The resulting reports will be evaluated again by the Prime Minister's Office, before being forwarded to the Presidency of the Republic to be ultimately appraised by the Head of State.

After ensuing discussions, the Prime Minister enjoined the ministers to have real ownership of their roadmap, which is a catalyst for administrative performance. He called on the ministries who were not up to date to forward their draft roadmaps for the year 2014 to his services without delay, for approval by the President of the Republic. He also prescribed special training sessions for officials of the ministries.

The Seminar proceeded with a statement of the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, who started by recalling the context for the implementation of GESP, which is the framework for Government action. He stressed that the main challenge of GESP is to set the pace for our country towards becoming an emerging economy by 2035, before stating that the tools needed to achieve this are available. These tools include programme budgets given that they streamline budgetary allocations, priority action plans based on GESP and the roadmaps of ministries which guide the implementation of envisaged projects and programmes.

In his closing remarks, he outlined the main challenges to be met in order to ensure the success of the Growth and Employment Strategy, which include: better planning and prioritizing development schemes submitted to the State budget, a greater involvement of the private sector, streamlining of the activities for official data collection, honing the synergy of actions between the State, the corporate private sector, and the banking and/or financial sector to enhance long-term investments.

At the end of this statement and the ensuing discussions, the Prime Minister instructed the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development to initiate the necessary reforms to achieve the goals of GESP, to streamline the allocation of counterpart funds, and to assist in the completion of sector-based and ministerial strategy papers to ensure a better balance between the strategic priorities of GESP and the operational objectives set out in the programme budgets and roadmaps of the ministries.

Closing the Seminar, after rich and intense discussions, the Prime Minister called on the Members of Government to translate the lessons learned from the statements and various contributions into concrete actions, in order to boost the individual performance of each administration and thus, the overall effectiveness of the Government. Furthermore, he prescribed that budgetary discipline be scrupulously respected and specifically urged the Ministers in charge of public contracts, of the economy and of finance to take all necessary measures to accelerate the procedures for the award of public contracts and ensure the timely availability of resources for the implementation of the projects featured in the roadmaps.

The seminar ended at noon."

Yaounde, 31 January 2014

Louis Paul MOTAZE,

SECRETARY GENERAL,

PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE