Some staff of the Offices of the Public Independent Conciliator for the North-West and South-West have been trained in budget formulation and management. They were trained during a three-day capacity building workshop organized by the Directorate General of Budget of the Ministry of Finance at Marcsons Hotel, Limbe from the 25th to 28th June 2024.
Created by Law No. 2019/024 of 24 December 2019 to institute the General Code of Regional and Local Authorities (GCRLA), the Offices of the Public Independent Conciliators for the South-West and North-West Regions are Special Status institutions with barely 3 years of existence. As Public Regional bodies called to promote good governance in regional and council administrations as well as employ dialogue and mediation to improve the state of relations between citizens and users and their respective regional and local authorities, OPICs do benefit from State allocations to permit them run operations and attain assigned missions and objectives. As such and in line with provisions of the Public Finance Laws such as those enunciated in the Constitution, the General Code for Regional and Local Authorities, the Fiscal Regime of the State and other Public Entities of July 11, 2018, and Circulars from the Minister of Finance, the Offices of the Public Independent Conciliator as all other State and public entities are expected to steward, manage, account and report on the State funds in accordance with the regulatory standards and norms in force. It is on this premise coupled with the exigencies of the National Development Strategy 2020-2030 (NDS30), that this capacity building workshop was organized by the Ministry of Finance.
Co-chaired by the PICs of the North-West Region and South-West Region Mr. Tamfu Simon and Mme Telelen Dorothy Atabong respectively, the workshop was attended by 24 staff of the two OPICs including Accounting Officers and Finance Controllers. Also present was the Representative of the Minister of Finance, Mr. HAMOA Hamadama, and a delegation from MINFI and MINEPAT comprising of 3 resource persons and 7 persons for the technical secretariat.
Speaking during the opening ceremony, the Public Independent Conciliator for the South-West Region, Mme Telelen Dorothy Atabong said the workshop was timely as it would enable both institutions better prepare and manage their budgets. The Representative of the Minister of Finance, Mr Hamoa Hamadama in his statement expressed the desire to see both institutions improve on their budget preparation and management after the workshop.
The presentations done by resources persons Ngaajieh Ransome Nnane, Mme Yuo Yolanda and Mr. Winikoa Joseph comprised of modules which drilled the participants on topics such as the General framework for Public Finance Management, Preparation of the Performance Based Budget in a Public Entity, General framework for execution of budgetary operations, Financial reporting in PIC, and Sensitization of the Process of Maturation of Public Investment Projects, (PIPs). The presentations were followed by Question-and-Answer sessions and practical exercises which gave the participants the opportunity to better assimilate the lessons. The presentations culminated with discussions and the formulation of recommendations.
At the end of the workshop, the PIC for the North-West delivered the closing remarks on a note of satisfaction for the quality of the lessons dispensed, the mastery of the subject matter by the resource persons and the active engagement and participation of the entire OPIC staff throughout the workshop. He equally on behalf of the PICs expressed words of thanks to the Minister of Finance for organizing such a timely and pertinent seminar. It was about 10 am when he declared the workshop closed and bid farewell and journey mercies to the respective delegations.
