Opaque governance threatens Cameroon’s EITI compliant status

The new norm of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, EITI, prescribes that conciliation reports must clearly show payments and sub-national transfers as well as expenditures and social transfers effected by extractive industries.

Presenting a research report on payments and sub-national transfers in the mineral exploitation zone of Figuil in the Far North Region titled: “EITI and Mining Governance in Cameroon: Between Rhetoric and Reality,” the Coordinator of the Network for the Fight Against Hunger, RELUFA, Napoleon Jaff Bamenjo, said activities of the sector in the country are still marred by opacity.

He said their choice of Figuil was because industrial mineral exploitation and extraction by two industries; one, producing cement and the other, marble, have been going on in that locality for over 50 years today.

“As such, Figuil, located in the Mayo and Louti Division, is supposed to have witnessed improved economic and social development, but the reality is far-fetched,” he stated.

Bamenjo said, going by the mining code, councils and the local communities located in the mining zone are entitled to 15 and 10 percent, respectively, of royalties paid by companies as a result of their mining activities. He said the study was prompted by the fact that there is no clear information on whether the royalties are paid and actually transferred to the councils and local communities as prescribed by the law.

Recalling that Cameroon was granted the EITI compliant status in October 2013, Bamenjo said the country must not only be doing the minimum to stay on but must work hard to meet up with the requirements that would enable it to remain an EITI member. He said the conciliation report that must contain payments and sub-national transfers must be ready by December 31 or else the country would risk its membership.

Apart from ineffectiveness of the regulatory framework governing the mining sector and judicial incoherencies that do not tie with the EITI norms, the study report that lasted from November 2013 to October 2014, also identified failure to publish contracts between government and exploitation companies as a serious blockade to transparency in the sector.

“When contracts are made public, the social obligations and voluntary acts of the companies to the councils and local communities are known. This can help the stakeholders to track payments and sub-national transfers,” Bamenjo held. Dr. Richard Ndi Tantoh, a member of the Publish What You Pay Coalition, said they are an advocacy structure that is out to make a difference when it comes to promoting transparency in the mining sector.

“Advocacy is getting the facts and using them to bring about positive change and we believe that a few people are capable of working to influence policy in a country,” he told the press.

Michel Bissou, in charge of the follow-up programme of extractive industries at RELUFA, talked on the key findings of the study, while Apollin Koagne, a consultant for the structure, elaborated on the choice of Figuil. Meanwhile, the Coordinator of the Natural Resources Governance Institute for Francophone Africa, Evelyne Tsague, said, apart from supporting capacity building and research, they also promote transparency in the mining, forestry and oils sectors, reason why the study was funded.

In a number of recommendations addressed to the various stakeholders, the Coordinator of RELUFA, who said their mission is to combat systemic problems generating poverty, hunger and economic, social and environmental injustices, remarked that they are not only out to criticise, but to also advocate for concrete solutions.

It was recommended that actions of all ministries whose work touch on the social domain, should be harmonised while the principle of decentralisation in management and follow-up of mineral resources, especially in payments and sub-national transfers, should be made a reality. Defining and adopting a law on EITI as well as the capacity building of public and para-public entities on EITI norms was also recommended.

Other recommendations were also directed to Cameroon’s EITI Committee headed by the Minister of Finance, companies, civil society organisations and locally elected representatives. Debates at the event were moderated by Dupleix Kuenzob Pedeme, a member of the Publish What You Pay Coalition.