Supreme State Audit Office. A veritable tool in the fight against corruption
Through its audit mechanisms, the Supreme State Audit Office has obtained a lot in bringing back government money mismanaged by vote holders.
Cynthia EFOPA
At the mention of the word Supreme State Audit Office, vote holders and authorized officers of public funds in state institutions and corporations go panicking. The fright of these persons is rooted in the professional tactics and strategies embedded in the workers of this institution in bringing to the limelight any corrupt practices carried out. Created by the Head of State president Paul Biya, the Supreme State Audit Office- CONSUPE is task to fight against corruption, acts of mismanagement, and acts of irregularities and embezzlement by vote holders and authorized officers of public funds. It equally has the daunting mission of auditing the execution of state budget and public funds. Since its creation, the institution has played a tremendous role in the fight against corruption in the country. It has brought back hundreds of billions of francs CFA back to state coffers.
As an external auditor, CONSUPE does not relent its effort in working hand in gloves with internal auditing organs of ministries and state corporations to curb acts of mismanagement and cases of irregularities. Popularly referred to as the “Gendarme of the state”, the institution control all ministries, public corporations and councils all over the national territory. When state finances are disbursed to execute projects, it follows up the projects to access how the last franc is used, this is done with justifiable documents. After every two years, CONSUPE patrol the national territory to control government sponsored projects, reasons why now our days it is difficult to hear the news of a contractor who took projects but did not execute it after receiving money from state coffers.
Through its Financial Disciplinary Board, the institution tries defaulters who have mismanaged public funds and if found liable they are asked to pay back the money and a special fine. However, their role is not only to reprimand, they also privilege prevention in the exercise of their duties by carrying out regular checks that helps in preventing financial losses to the State. For they realized that people do commit acts of mismanagement or irregularities either because of ignorance or misinterpretation of official texts that governs institutions. Since 2016, the Financial Disciplinary Board sits monthly to handle aspects of irregularities and if a public servant is found guilty, copies of the judgement is sent to the Ministry of Finance and the embezzled money is curtailed from their salaries, for retired workers, subsequent measures is arrived at to recover the money. The Board does not have a criminal competence. So for criminal cases, the Financial Disciplinary Board sends the report to the Head of State who in turns channel it to the Ministry of Justice for action.