(Business in Cameroon) – Fav
Yesterday, Cameroon’s Minister of Public Service, Joseph Lé, announced the dismissal of 1,172 public servants through an official notice. These individuals, who were found to have irregular employment statuses, join two earlier groups of 1,981 and 424 employees who were also dismissed. This brings the total number of terminated public service workers to 3,577 to date.
The dismissals are part of the contentious phase of the Physical Headcount Operation for State Personnel (Coppe). Launched in 2018, this initiative aims to identify and remove irregularly listed employees from the government payroll. These include individuals absent without justification, those who resigned, or cases where deaths were not reported.
According to Minister Lé, Coppe uncovered 8,766 irregular cases among public servants. Despite repeated calls and warnings from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Public Service, only 601 employees responded to provide written explanations, with some appearing before the Permanent Public Service Disciplinary Council.
Minister Lé indicated that over 5,000 additional public servants remain under scrutiny and could face dismissal. President Paul Biya has instructed the government to finalize this phase of Coppe by fully removing identified irregular employees from the payroll as part of preparations for Cameroon’s 2025 state budget.
The directive also includes measures to clean up the payroll further by eliminating records of employees who have resigned and closing accounts used for salaries or pensions paid in error.
This ongoing cleanup has already delivered major financial benefits. According to the Ministry of Finance, Coppe has removed about 10,000 ghost workers from the payroll since 2019, saving the state around CFA 30 billion annually.
