(Business in Cameroon) – The minister of Public Service and Administrative Reform, Joseph Le, told the National Assembly on November 27 that the Operation for the Physical Count of State Personnel (COPPE) has so far processed more than 8,000 disciplinary files. Among them, more than 5,000 cases involve civil servants, more than 3,000 concern state employees under the Labor Code, and 24 target staff receiving a global salary.
The minister said that “to date, 5,936 public agents have been removed from the state workforce.” The total includes 2,965 dismissed civil servants and 2,971 state employees under the Labor Code who were fired. These removals are part of the government’s effort to clean the state payroll file.
In March, the minister had already announced the dismissal of a first group of 232 civil servants. This new set of sanctions extends the implementation of COPPE, launched in 2018 to clean public sector staffing and ensure the reliability of the state payroll file.
The stakes are high for public finances: thousands of state employees do not report to work yet continue to receive their pay. This situation increases the share of the state budget devoted to the wage bill and limits new hiring in the public sector by reducing available fiscal space.
In June 2022, Minister Joseph Le said that 8,766 state employees were at risk of dismissal. Requests for explanations had been sent to justify their absences but went unanswered. At the time, the minister said, “Either they have died or they have gone elsewhere. We must fire contract workers and dismiss civil servants.”
The 5,936 removals already decided do not end the process. They are part of a broader effort to clean public sector staffing, which could lead to further disciplinary decisions as pending files are reviewed.
Beyond the disciplinary aspect, the effort also concerns the credibility of public spending. The challenge will be to turn these removals into real savings on the wage bill and redirect resources toward priority sectors. The success of COPPE will depend on the administration’s ability to ensure lasting accuracy in its payroll file, modernize attendance monitoring, and align staff cleanup with a more selective but better planned recruitment strategy.
Ludovic Amara
