Senior officials at the Ministry of Finance under the Biya regime are suspected of having introduced more than 20,000 fictitious civil servants into the State payroll databases.
Yaoundé has once again uncovered the scale of an endemic problem deeply rooted at the heart of the public administration. Some 20,000 fictitious civil servants were identified in Cameroon in 2025, the Ministry of the Civil Service and Administrative Reform (Minfopra) announced on Monday. Among them, 12,000 will have their salaries suspended starting next January.
According to official figures, this massive fraud particularly affects 5,000 teachers, including school principals, as well as 2,500 health workers—doctors and nurses. These non-existent employees were costing the State more than 46 billion CFA francs every year.
Far from being new, the phenomenon persists despite the reforms that have been undertaken. The launch in January of the Aigles application, combined with physical headcount operations of State personnel (Coppe), was precisely intended to clean up the management of staffing and payroll.
On the union side, suspicion is directed at certain senior officials within the payroll department of the Ministry of Finance, accused of regularly inserting false registration numbers. As early as November 2024, 1,172 agents had already been struck off the rolls, bringing the total number of civil servants removed to 4,027. The government hopes to recover 15.5 billion CFA francs through this crackdown—evidence that the fight is still far from being won.
Another Scandal Rocks Cameroon’s Finance Ministry
