Professionalization of the Public Service

Cameroon is a developing country, and therefore, the Public Service must be characterized by competent and professional bureaucrats appointed through meritocratic processes. Consequently, the recruitment, selection, and appointment of civil servants must be considered essential to creating a stable, effective, and efficient government administration to serve the One Nation, Two Systems model.

To serve this objective, the creation of independent bodies to develop practical training and selective processes based on merit principles for bureaucratic appointments within the One Nation, Two Systems model is essential. This is central to the professionalization of the public service.

For example, state institutions serving predominantly Francophone populations will be served, at least in these critical areas of Public Service, Education, Justice, and Law Enforcement (Police), by competent human resources capable of providing their services in the French language. From needs assessment to training and deployment of civil servants, the linguistic and sociological particularities of the populations to be served must be considered, a priori, as important components of the merit-based system.

Therefore, it is essential in the Spirit of One Nation, Two Systems (ONTS) to also examine the characteristics, roles, and functions of central personnel agencies in a developing country like Cameroon. It is important to situate the goals, objectives, and recruitment criteria of institutions, training, and recruitment agencies serving the two systems of the nation in the context of ONTS and a developing nation seeking economic growth and transformation.

The USDP will ensure that efforts to build an effective, efficient public service capable of supporting the development of a Cameroon under the ONTS model always require a review of the performance, composition, and characteristics of the institutions tasked with shaping the state's civil servants across its regions.

The establishment of a high-performing public service system in Cameroon will be associated with a rejection of the current 'spoils system,' of favoritism where the recruitment and appointment of civil servants are not necessarily meritocratic but may be based on individual discretion or the influence of a bribe. The Public Service system to support an ONTS must be based on merit, with criteria established over a period corresponding to selection, training, and deployment. Consequently, civil servants intended to serve at the Ministry of Public Works in Bamenda will be known in advance, in quality, quantity, and characteristics, for at least the time required to select, train, and deploy them. This means that strategic planning in all areas will be a cornerstone of the ONTS Policy.

Cameroon has a range of public institutions with a history of training civil servants. The USDP will use various meritocratic models from around the world, such as those from Singapore, Hong Kong, or South Korea, etc., to reform public institutions and agencies responsible for recruiting and training civil servants to serve the proposed One Nation, Two Systems model for Cameroon.

In this new dispensation of the public service under the USDP, public service training institutions, agencies, or commissions serving the One Nation, Two Systems model will evolve into independent and meritocratic bodies tasked with building capacity, enforcing public service law, and promoting public service values. In this regard, the commissions will help plan, prepare, and regulate recruitment in the public service by ensuring that appointments and subsequent promotions are based on a merit system after a fair and open competitive process—similar to the open recruitment of executives for high-level positions in the private sector—because there is no calling more noble than serving the public.