CONAC updating staff, other stakeholders with knowledge on emerging corruption-related crime.

It is being done with support from the African Development Bank, AfDB, through the Public Finance Governance Support Project, PAGFIP.

The Chairman of CONAC, Rev Dr Dieudonné Massi Gams, launched the training. This was in the presence of the Coordinator of PAGFIP, Valentin Lah Kouotou, and other stakeholders. 

Officials said the two-phase training is for 100 participants. The first runs from yesterday Monday, September 14, to Friday, September 18. They noted that the second phase is scheduled to run from Monday, September 21 to Friday, September 25.

Rev Dr Dieudonné Massi Gams described the training as a decisive and a well-tailored initiative. He said the skills participants will acquire will equip them with the knowhow to efficiently tackle criminals who are notably exploiting digital tools like Artificial Intelligence to commit crimes linked to corruption. 

“The objective is to train stakeholders so that they are better equipped…to intervene when investigations need to be conducted regarding these new challenges that must be addressed,” Rev Dr Massi Gams stated.

He noted that “with social media, there are methods used by corruptors to create further opacity in financial management”. 

“In the face of these emerging forms of crime, inaction and guesswork have no place,” CONAC boss stated.

Investigations and monitoring methods, Rev Dr Massi Gams said, must evolve to the changing times. 

“We need to join others in transparency and accountability so that Cameroonians benefit from the advantages and products intended for their development and well-being,” he added.

The CONAC boss said succeeding in tackling the new forms of crime related to corruption will further strengthen the fight against corruption. 

He opined that Cameroon is not pleased with its current standing in Africa when it comes to the fight against corruption.

Rev Dr Massi Gams noted that Cameroon remains committed to doubling efforts to attain the target set for 2035. 

This, he noted, focuses on ensuring integrity constitutes a fundamental value as outlined by the National Anti-Corruption Strategy adopted in 2011.

He expressed gratitude to PAGFIP, the Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development and AfDB for their continuous support to CONAC.

Enter PAGFIP Coordinator

The Coordinator of PAGFIP, Lah Valentin, said the training’s target to boost the country’s economic performance. He said it is fully in line with the priorities of PAGFIP to strengthen the institutional and organizational environment of public finance management through increased tax revenue mobilization and the promotion of public spending efficiency.

The Coordinator said Cameroon has been faced over the years by limitations emerging from multiple institutional, technical, and financial constraints. These, he said, are negatively affecting the country’s economic performance.

“This meeting is anchored in sub-component 2.2 of the project, specifically the strengthening of transparency and accountability. The objective of this sub-component is to reinforce the warning mechanism against economic embezzlement and illicit financial flows by enhancing the integrity of the regulatory and institutional framework of public finance management, with a view to improving spending efficiency and effectiveness,” Lah stated. 

Participants commit to task

One of the participants, Paul Williams Obounou Nyebe, from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, said he is confident that the workshop will place him in a more strategic position to tackle the new forms of crimes related to corruption.

Obounou Nyebe who is Inspector General in Charge of Administrative Affairs at the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development who also doubles as the ministry’s anti-corruption unit head said he is open to learn new things.

“We hope that by the end of the seminar we will be able to grasp all of these concepts and knowhow to conduct ourselves in our respective professional environments,” Nyebe.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3910 of Tuesday September 15, 2026