Many Cameroonians are complaining about the fact that the brightest applicants are not the only ones passing civil service exams. They lean more towards favouritism, nepotism, corruption to explain this situation. In truth, they are not aware that Cameroon enforces in its own way the quota policy labelled at the local level “regional balance”.

Indeed, according to Article 2 of Decree n˚10467 signed by the Minister of Civil Service on 4 October 1982 (updated on 20 August 1992), it is expected for civil service exams that 5% of successful applicants will come from Adamaoua, 18% from the Extreme-North, 7% from the Northern region, 15% from the Central region, 4% from the Eastern region, 13% from the Western region, 12% from the Littoral, 12% from the North-Western and 8% from the South-Western region.

The regional balance policy was reinforced in the 18 January 1996 Constitution, which states that, “The State ensures the harmonious development of all decentralised local administrations based on national solidarity, regional capacities and inter-regional balance”. Reason for which people coming from some regions labelled as priority zones in terms of education are sometimes privileged in civil service exams. Thus, a native from the Extreme-North, could pass an exam with a grade of 10 out 20 while his fellow countryman from the Central region could fail with 12 out 20 because there would have been more candidates from the Central region who have already been successful. This simply because all Cameroonians must be integrated in the public administration, according to the regional balance policy in application.

S.A