AN EVALUATION OF THE IMPACT OF FINANCIAL CONTROL MECHANISMS ON PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE IN CAMEROON

Abstract

Numerous factors have been identified by previous studies to been involved in government revenue correction and spending in Africa in general and Cameroon in particular amongst which include population size, social needs, rising income levels, internal crisis, changes in political structure, rising inflation among others. Taxation is one of the major sources of government income and expenditure in Cameroon and beyond. The major issue here is how best can these taxes be collected and spent so as to maximised the welfare of Cameroonians? It is on this ground that this study is designed to evaluate the extent to which financial control mechanisms could yield effective tax collection performance in the economy of Cameroon. The study reveals that the control of government effectiveness in revenue collection, financial regulations in revenue collection, participatory democracy, broad money supply, inflation rate enhance tax revenue in Cameroon. At the same time, deposit interest rate, the Gini coefficient index as a measure of inequality and life expectancy are birth are capable of retarding tax revenue collection in Cameroon. Based on the finding of the study we strongly recommend that for tax revenue to be properly collected and used for the management of the economy of Cameroon, there is need  for the true practice of decentralization. By this, regional autonomy and job security should be guaranteed, law should guide the driving of professionalism for effective revenue collection and utilisation, moral education should be enforced at all levels and made compulsory for both private and public institutions of learning, corruption should be taken care of by improving upon the quality of insurance policies and practices in Cameroon, policy on price control and quality control, existed in the 60s and 70s law in Cameroon need to be reactivated. Retirement ages in Cameroon need to be respected for office holders automatically. Manual check should be reduced in favour of the automatic electronic checks in all revenue collection while realistic budgeting put in place, the users of the budget participate fully in the development, drafting implement of the budget. In fact we call for total financial discipline in Cameroon.