Dematerialization  of Administrative Procedures: Implementation of Digital Reforms, Assessment and Prospects.

The  digitalized Annual  Conference of the Central and Devolved Services of MINFOPRA and bodies under its supervisory authority took place on February 1st, 2022, at the new conference hall of the Ministry of the Public Service and Administrative Reform.

The quest for the Public Service nationwide to be in phase with technological advancements and innovations, was at the centre of discussions of  a digital annual conference, which took place yesterday at CLUB MINFOPRA, under the theme  Dematerialization and simplification of Administrative Procedures, issues, evaluation and perspectives.
The conference which brought together officials of different categories of the Ministry began with an opening speech by the head of the Ministerial department,  Mr. Joseph LE, who put a stress on the delays in the processing of some files, difficult access to certain basic public services and the improvement of the working conditions of state employees.

Activities proper were animated by the interventions of four Directors;
The first intervention was that of the Permanent Secretary for Administrative Reform, who clarified the concepts of dematerialization and simplification of procedures, particularly in terms of modernisation. He further reviewed the main actions of MINFOPRA, in the field of simplification and dematerialization of procedures, then ended with the challenges and prospects in implementation. Secondly, the Head of Division of Information Systems, made a diagnosis of the functioning of MINFOPRA services, in terms of the improvement of the working conditions of  state agents with interconnection of central and decentralized services, the production of career documents from 23,000 files processed in 2017, to  63,000 in 2021,  oral presentations by videoconference, electronic notification of proceedings, and the dematerialization of procedures of registration for concours. For the prospects, he mentioned the advent of SIGIPES II and a digital platform dedicated to the authentication of diplomas.

The 3rd and 4th interventions were those of the Director Generals of the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM) and the Advanced Institute of Public Management (ISMP), who recalled the missions of the schools under their charge  and brought to the knowledge of the participants, the actions carried out within the framework of the establishment of the digital campus with a focal point to interact with partners of KOICA and  the actions undertaken in the organization of competitive examinations, just to name a few. Lastly, the presentation of the Regional  Delegate of the North region gave a balance sheet of actions done in terms of dematerialization and simplication of administrative procedures within the regional delegations of MINFOPRA, the situation, impact, statistics and challenges.

These presentations were followed by a session of  questions, answers and suggestions, which rounded off with a brief presentation of the upcoming SAGO 2022  presented  by the Head of the Communication Unit.

 The conference ended with the announcement of the outlook challenges for the year 2022 by the Minister, such as the delivery of the new SIGIPES, the process authentication career files diplomas and the government action fair, to show the national and international community, what is being done in Cameroon, in terms of modernizing administrations.

Linda MBAL, Journalist/ CELCOM