Price List: Exceedingly Higher Than Market Rates

The suggested prices currently used in public contracts execution prompts the State to spend more when compared to market prices of goods and services

The rates on the official price list suggested by the State for the execution of public contracts are far higher than what obtains in the open market, Cameroon Tribune has observed again.  The State is bound to spend more in procuring goods and obtaining services, thanks to the 2017 price list dubbed ‘Mercuriale,’ which like for the previous years, has staggering rates. In the process, contractors benefit more, to the detriment of service users and goods consumers who would have had more at the same amount if the prices were more realistic when compared to what obtains in local markets.
According to the 2017 price list contained in the Programme Budget Information System (PROBMIS 2017)  a 4GB 2.0 USB stick of Kingston brand costs FCFA 14,294.5. Ordinarily, such a removable storage device will cost no more than FCFA 6,000 in the Kennedy Avenue market in Yaounde. Considering that a Government Ministry is to purchase about 500 of such sticks, much money would have gone down the drain of the contracts execution chain. Another case in point is a scientific calculator of mark Casio DI 20, whose price on the ‘Mercuriale’ stands at FCFA 35,945, even when such a calculator will hardly be sold at above FCFA 10,000.
Besides the price of the calculator, other consumables are sold at staggering prices. Joel Essomba, a merchant of caskets at the Mvog-Ada neighbourhood in Yaounde, ...