Do the mechanisms of the program budget improve the consumption of credits allocated to the State budget? Evidence in ministerial departments in Cameroon

Abstract

The objective of this article is to examine the effect of program budget mechanisms on the consumption of budget appropriations in Cameroon. To achieve this, on the one hand, we used the financial execution reports (commitment, liquidation and authorization rates for public expenditure) of the Cameroon State budget over the period 2003-2022. On the other hand, we used information from a survey carried out among 475 actors in the performance chain in the central services of 29 ministerial departments of the State of this country. The results obtained using descriptive statistics and the non-parametric Mann-Whitney mean comparison test indicate that the switch from the means budget to the program budget led to a significant improvement in the level of budget credit consumption. The results of the probit regression also show that, with the exception of the relaxation of financial controls, the effect of which on the level of credit consumption is negative, the other mechanisms of the program budget, namely the fungibility of credits and accountability of managers have a positive effect. The study recommends streamlining financial controls.

Keywords: Program budget, budgetary appropriations, fungibility of appropriations, financial controls, Cameroon