In a bid to curb fraud, embezzlement of public funds, delay in payment procurement and other forms of shady deals in Councils across Cameroon, the National Community Driven Programme, PNDP, is currently training Mayors, Secretaries General, Municipal Treasurers and Council Development Officers on how to operate using the SIMBA accounting software.

The new software, conceived by the International Association of Francophone Mayors, and recommended through the Ministry of Finance to Public Accountants, has been approved by the Government of Cameroon.

Opening a five-day workshop in Bambui on October 27, the Senior Divisional Officer for Mezam, Felix Nguele Nguele, thanked PNDP for shouldering the burden to train Council officials on the proper use of the software. According to the SDO, the new software application has been very successful in the Douala City Council. Following the evaluation of this success, he went on, a convention was signed between PNDP and the International Association of Francophone Mayors, AIMF.

The convention between PNDP and AIMF, the SDO said, is applicable only to Councils working with the PNDP.

Nguele Nguele said the objectives of the five-day capacity building workshop was to school participants on the proper use of the SIMBA software, how to type and save data in the SIMBA software, identify problems related to the use of the software and come up with possible solutions to the problem affecting the effective implementation of the software.

According to the SDO, Councils are expected to slot in data for the 2014 budget and the drafting of the 2015 budget into the SIMBA system.

“Through the proper implementation of this software, the editing of the council budget and the Administrative Accounts as required by the Finance Law will become effective,” he said.

The Northwest Regional Coordinator of PNDP, Bruno Daniel Nkanjo, said the new software will help define the roles of the various stakeholders and accelerate work in the Councils. He said the SIMBA software is very vital in Council management because, “A Mayor gives instructions to collaborators who tactfully do not want to follow and treat the documents as fast as the Mayor expects.

With the new software, activities and actions shall be traced easily from Mayors to SGs and Municipal Treasurers,” Nkanjo explained. The coming of SIMBA, according to Nkanjo, shall equally put an end to the challenges of decentralisation.

“I am happy to announce that from January 2015, PNDP will extend its activities to Bamenda I, II and III Councils. This will bring the number of PNDP Councils in the Northwest to 34.”

The Representative of the Northwest Paymaster General, Kenneth Ngamchoah, cautioned Municipal Treasurers against messing up Council accounts, else, they would be jailed.

“Practice good governance and embrace the new SIMBA software because nobody wants to be imprisoned,” Ngamchoah stated.

The Communication Chief at PNDP, Pascal Kolo, said the new software shall curb the frequent clashes between mayors and their collaborators, “who, in the past, have been living a cat-and-dog life. It will improve transparency and good governance because everything is found inside the software. As such all the Councils in Cameroon are supposed to adopt SIMBA and use it for optimum performance.”