MELA has Hosted Bar Secretary, Legal Experts for Training in Kumba on Public Procurement and ligation under the CEMAC/OHADA framework.

Kumba, Cameroon — The Meme Lawyers’ Association (MELA) has hosted a joint legal training seminar bringing together lawyers and Advocates-in-Training from Meme and Manyu Divisions in Kumba.

The seminar, held at Regal Hotel, had as facilitators, LSC Barrister Martin Serge Zangue, Secretary of the Cameroon Bar Association and Member of the Bar Council, alongside Magistrate Chick Biat Anong, Deputy State Counsel for Mamfe, as lead facilitators.

The training focused on “Public Procurement and Litigation: Mastering Procedures, Risks and Remedies under the CEMAC/OHADA Framework.”

Participants examined key aspects of public procurement law, including innovations in the 2018 CEMAC Public Procurement Code, challenges to irregular contract awards, procurement-related offences and the ethical responsibilities of lawyers advising bidders and contracting authorities.

The seminar formed part of Continuous Legal Education program, aimed at strengthening the professional capacity of legal practitioners and Advocates-in-Training.

The presence of the Secretary of the Cameroon Bar Association also highlighted efforts by the Bar Council to decentralise professional training and improve access to quality legal education within the South West Region.

The joint session further provided an opportunity for lawyers from Meme and Manyu to exchange professional experiences and strengthen collaboration within the legal profession.

MELA President and Divisional Coordinator in charge of Admission and Training for Meme Division, Dr. Bar. Ebolloh Emmanuel Musango, said the association remains committed to continuous professional development and the advancement of the legal profession.

Speaking during the seminar, LSC Barrister Martin Serge Zangue, Secretary of the Cameroon Bar Association and Member of the Bar Council, underscored the importance of continuous legal training for lawyers, particularly in the area of public procurement and litigation.

Barrister Zangue addressed participants on the practical challenges lawyers face when dealing with public procurement disputes, stressing the need for practitioners to have a clear understanding of applicable procedures, legal remedies and professional responsibilities.

Talking immediately after the serminar, Dr, Bar. Ebolloh Emmanuel,  president of Meme Lawyers Association  said the following:

​"This joint training seminar comprising advocates and advocates-in-training from Manyu and Kumba is coming at a time when we are almost rounding off with the regular weekly training seminars of AITs." ​And it's an offshoot of carefully crafted resolutions by the Bar Council of ensuring that the advocates-in-training who were sworn in should have professional training. ​And so, coming with the theme "Public Procurement and Litigation: Mastering Challenges, Risks, and Remedies" is all the more telling because we are coming at a time where third parties, the public, the private individuals do not even know why contracts are being awarded and they are poorly executed. And then we stay quiet, we see our streets have turned into something else, whereas there has been contract allocations to third parties. ​So, this training seminar, we pray the participants should be receptive and attentive, because you can be attentive and you are not receptive. We have chosen the facilitators who have mastery in this area and by the end of the day, we shall be able to know the timeline to bring an action before the Administrative Court in Buea, who should bring an action, on what basis, and where we think the awards or executions are contentious, we should be able to bring an action. ​Don't forget, this is a synergy between the public administrators, or administration, who contracts with the private individual to execute government projects, government contracts. And so, the government as the project guarantor should be able to know that this contract which has been allocated to X and Y company should be scrupulously executed within the time frame and the qualities and the specificities that have been contained in the various clauses. ​And so, we want to expose the public, the lawyers who are the actors of justice to know that public contracts and this public procurement is not only meant for the Francophone zones. We also have contracts in Kumba, for instance, in the Southwest, which are poorly executed. So, how do we go about it? ​So, by the time the lawyers are well-equipped, they know exactly what to do to come by way of a third-party proceedings to bring pressure on the unscrupulous contractors who collect huge sums, colossal sums of money, yet they cannot execute. These contracts are for the benefit of the populace, Kumba needs roads, Kumba needs hospitals, Kumba needs schools.

Contracts are awarded, you can't find any proper execution. ​So, we think that this seminar is going a long way to sharpen the skills of some lawyers who hitherto from now had not mastered the procedure on how to go about to navigate on these unscrupulous contractors.

The administrative bench, the Administrative Court in the Southwest Region in the days ahead will be visited with an enormous floodgate of actions coming from these unscrupulous contractors, because we have been drilled, we have been equipped, we have been told, we have been taught the tools and given all the necessary tools to check, to ensure that we, as voice of the voice of the voiceless, should be able to put to check such malpractices...