Directory of serious contractors to be publish

John Akere, President of the newly formed National Order of Contractors in Cameroon, NACOCAM, talks on the plans of his association to improve the execution of State contracts.

What prompted the creation of NACOCAM?

NACOCAM stands for the National Order of Contractors in Cameroon, with an executive of 13 members. I am the President. NACOCAM is an association of contractors specialised in public contracts who have come together to build common strategies in order to face the challenges in the sector. Public contracts face enormous challenges, with contractors often blamed for what goes wrong more than anyone else.

What do you hope to achieve through this association?

Great achievements of course! As it is clearly spelt out in the objectives of the association, we hope to first of all bring contractors together - I mean real contractors. We shall help them understand the strategic role they play in the economy as major partners of the State. We shall as well let contractors understand that you can take up public contract execution as a profession and be able to create wealth like in other businesses.

If contractors speak with one voice, the State and banks will take us more seriously. I believe our Public Contract Code needs urgent review. Many contractors do not understand the tax system. Sometimes we pay about 60 per cent of the cost of a contract, while bank charges at times surpass loans contracted from banks. At the end, banks make huge sums of money at the detriment of struggling contractors who are often not paid on time for their jobs.

The public contract system in Cameroon faces a lot of challenges such as the abandonment of projects, contractors tendering for jobs without any knowledge of the terrain and sometimes without the relevant experience. How does your association hope to correct these ills?

The problems in public contracts in Cameroon are enormous and complex, but only contractors tend to be blamed. The problems begin from the conception of projects right up to execution by contractors. Do you know that some projects are awarded before the sites are selected? At each stage, the rules are not often respected. This is compounded by corruption, thus the poor quality jobs we find around the country.

It is high time government engaged the civil society in contract award procedures from the start to completion. NACOCAM intends to set standards by carrying out an inventory of all companies and individuals involved in public contracts. We will publish a directory of serious contractors, based on specific criteria, which thereafter be updated every year.

NACOCAM shall endeavour to be represented in all the 10 regions of the country. We shall also create local follow-up committees for all investment projects from award to execution.

These committees are expected to submit reports of their findings on well executed, badly executed and abandoned projects, etc. We shall also set up a magazine that will publish reports of local project follow-up committees for the public to know about developments in their areas.

In order to encourage public contract stakeholders, we intend to award prizes to hardworking contractors, State officials and banks at the end of each financial year. By so doing, we will contribute our quota to the emergence of Cameroon by 2035.