Social Networks : Civil Servants Told To Be Reserved

Former students of the National School of Administration and Magistracy dubbed ENAM (in the French Language), batch of 2003/2005, recently met at the school premises to celebrate 20 years of their alma mater. The event took place alongside the general constitutive assembly of the batch. The gathering held on the theme, “Social networks and obligation of reserve in the Cameroonian public service.” Opening the assembly was the General Manager of ENAM, Bertrand Pierre Soumbou Angoula who encouraged such unity amongst current and former students.
In the inaugural lecture, which focused on the theme of the gathering, Professor Eric Mathias Owona Nguini said nowadays, social networks have totally transformed people’s social lives by giving them the opportunity to overcome distance barrier. The social networks, he explained, have also created a new circuit for the flow of information, as they bring the good, bad and ugly content to all users. Civil servants, he reiterated, happen to be living in the social networks era and their professional lives are subsequently affected. Through social networks, it was revealed that information circulates faster, making it difficult to control what goes out to the public, hence making the public service almost impossible to regulate. Article 40 of the Public Service Law states that a civil servant cannot publicly voice out opinions on politics, religion, philosophy and trade unions while carrying out his duties, for he or she needs to be reserve, discrete, neutral and exercise professional secrecy.
However, Prof Nguini said with the change in the information circuit, civil servants now use their status as citizens to share sensitive information on their social media handles. That is why the public sees falsified ...