ART solicits help for the recovery of its foreign debt

Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ART) solicited the assistance of the Ministry of External Relations for the recovery 1.3 billion CFA francs owed by 22 representatives in respect of royalties from the use of frequencies.

February 5, 2014, (ART) telecommunications regulatory agency claimed 28 025 023 439 FCFA of receivables owed by various telecommunications networks operators.

The embassies and other international organizations in Cameroon, also users of national radio frequencies including atellite signals, were liable for 1,228 335 908 FCFA. Among the 22 concerned diplomatic representations, BEAC appeared to the largest debtor, with 403 956 000 FCFA, followed by the international Committee of Red Cross (253 257 000 FCFA), the Office of the High Commissioner of the United Nations for Refugees (236 319 600 FCFA), Embassy of the United States (158 281,800 FCFA), etc.

Approached, some diplomatic missions refuse to talk about debt to ART. For them, it is not fair to talk about non-payment of royalties whenever they sometimes cite agreements that exist between their countries or organisations and Cameroon, sometimes of the privileges and immunities provided for by the Vienna convention of 1961, which regulates diplomatic relations and exempt from the payment of duties and taxes.

An argument swept by the superior control of the State (Consupe). In its first audit of the management of ART, the Consupe report recalled that "the fees, costs, contributions and royalties due to ART are not taxes and fees, including the privilege of recovery under the tax administration.

ART resources constitute rather value of the services rendered by this administrative public establishment in the context of its social object. Therefore, these resources cannot be referred by any exemptions from taxes and fees. Moreover, continued Consupe, "recognized diplomatic privileges and immunity does not exempt them from payment of the counterparties of the services consumed on the national territory, like water, electricity and the telephone".

The arguments of the Consupe seem all the more relevant that some diplomatic representations, like the United States, the World Food Programme, the world Organization of health, Médecins Sans Frontières, etc. have historically paid these charges.

ART requested the assistance of the Ministry of External Relations (Minrex), single official interlocutor of the diplomatic missions and international organizations, for the recovery of debts.

At the end of a consultation together ART and the leaders of Minrex June 13, 2014 in Yaoundé, it was agreed to establish a working group quadripartite (Minrex, Minfi, Minpostel and ART) to develop a strategy of recovery of this debt. Initially, it was to focus on awareness-raising actions.