Thursday April 4, 2024 in Brazzaville, Mr. Jean-Baptiste ONDAYE, Minister of Economy and Finance, made a communication to the Directors General of financial authorities and establishments under supervision. The purpose of this communication was to immerse its collaborators in the exercise of the journey towards the quest for better performance in the economic and financial governance of the Congo.

On this occasion, Minister Jean-Baptiste ONDAYE recalled the five orientations issued during his communications in November and December 2022, as well as the challenges that these orientations should make it possible to meet.

“These guidelines focused on the obligation of performance and results; the fight against anti-values ​​and deviance of all kinds; promoting team spirit; the development of a roadmap of activities to be carried out; and periodic evaluation of planned activities.

These orientations should enable us to meet the following challenges: optimal mobilization of resources, with a view to financing the National Development Plan (PND) 2022-2026 and the functioning of the State; the acceleration of the diversification of the national economy; the reduction of the debt as well as its viability; the execution of the Program concluded with the International Monetary Fund, under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) 2022-2024; the execution of the 2022-2023 Resilience Plan to combat the high cost of living; and the rationalization of economic and financial governance,” he recalled.

According to the Congolese Monetary Authority, all these challenges remain current, apart from that relating to the execution of the resilience plan.

This is why, he thinks, in order to find relevant answers to meet these challenges, he and his colleagues have engaged in a participatory approach towards several areas of change. These projects, he specified, resulted in intense activity in 2023 and made it possible to develop the ministry's strategic planning documents, with the ambition of becoming the vector of economic and financial performance at the horizon 2026.

This approach, in the opinion of the Head of the Department of Economy and Finance, also made it possible to revisit the organization of services and structures under the supervision of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. It thus resulted in the publication of thirteen (13) new decrees relating to the organizational charts of the services of the Ministry of the Economy and Finance.

Innovations in the reorganization of the Ministry of Economy and Finance

The Minister of the Economy and Finance reiterated to his interlocutors the innovations in the reorganization of his department. This is :

• the clear separation between strategic management functions and operational functions; 
• the distinction between support functions, common to all structures at the same level, and business functions, specific to each structure; 
• the creation of the management control service and the Internal Audit and Information Systems Department in all General Directorates; 
• the splitting of the Administration and Finance Directorate into the Human Resources Directorate and the Finance and Equipment Directorate; 
• the creation, under the Minister of the Economy and Finance, of a permanent Secretariat for strategic steering and performance management; 
• the rise in power of the General Inspectorate of Finance with the creation of inspections and a college of financial inspectors; 
• improving the financial inclusion system and controlling the operation of credit institutions; 
• control of all compartments of budgetary revenue mobilization with the establishment of the Natural Resources Directorate as a General Directorate; 
• the clear distinction between the service of determining the base and that of liquidating taxes relating to the activities of different categories of taxpayers; 
• the institution of the centralization of customs operations carried out by active and sedentary services; 
• the development of the financial and banking function of the Treasury with the creation of the Deposits and Consignments Department; t
• he rationalization of securitization operations on the capital market with the creation of the Capital Markets Department alongside that in charge of securities and securities; 
• the centralization of the operations of public accountants and the establishment of a stratification of the functions of the Treasury into three entities, namely: General Revenue, General Payroll and Central Treasury, led by executives who have the rank of Deputy Director General ; 
• the creation of the Main Revenue with the financial administrations responsible for the recovery and accounting of budgetary revenues falling within their respective competences; 
• and the elimination of conflicts of jurisdiction between services in the same field.

The expectations of Minister Jean-Baptiste ONDAYE

The opportunity was also appropriate for the head of the Department of Economy and Finance to express his expectations from his colleagues. The latter are required to “appropriate the innovations built together; to make a firm commitment to the change management underway since June 2023; to master the new paradigms of Results-Based Management (GAR);to fight against bad practices in services; and to do everything possible to ensure that all these reforms undertaken together are successful by 2026.”

Regarding expectations in terms of revenue mobilization, Minister Jean-Baptiste ONDAYE declared: “The summary results of current customs investigations and the prospect of surveys of tax services have revealed real potential in terms of mobilizing revenue. tax revenues. Also, in connection with the generalization of FULL SCANNING and the finalization of the interfaces of all the applications of the Public Finance Management System, I think that a target of 1,500 billion F CFA in tax revenue in 2024, of which 1 000 billion in taxes and 500 billion in customs duties, is realistic.”

In addition, in terms of expenditure, the objective is to reduce current operating expenditure by 5% compared to the budget forecasts for the year 2024, while ensuring compliance, on time, with the sovereign commitments of the State: salaries of civil servants, retirement pensions, debt service, priority projects of the PND 2022-2026.

Ultimately, Minister Jean-Baptiste ONDAYE invited the executives and agents of the Ministry to embark on the train of reforms “which is now on track”.

The Communication Unit of the Ministry of Economy and Finance 

Photo credit: B2B Communication