THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF ANTI-CORRUPTION BODIES TO THE PROMOTION OF GOOD CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN PUBLIC CORPORATIONS IN CAMEROON: THE CASE OF THE NATIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION COMMISSION (CONAC) AND THE AUDIT BENCH OF THE SUPREME COURT

ABSTRACT

In the business world, scandals are not a new phenomenon, the scope and fall-out from the Enron and Arthur Andersen debacles made the issue front-page news for months. Highly published corporate scandals such as Polly Peck and Maxwell in the late 1989 marked the genesis of corporate governance issues in the United Kingdom (UK). This research critically examines the contributions of Anti-corruption bodies to (the Special Criminal Court and the Audit Bench of the Supreme Court) to the promotion of good corporate governance in public corporations in Cameroon. There is weak governance of public corporations in Cameroon. This is so owing to the fact that boards and management teams are largely made up of representatives of government administrations or government officials, potentially weakening the independence of directors and, in so doing, corporate governance. The research adopts the qualitative methodology and method used is content analyses of primary and secondary sources. The study finds that CONAC in its duties in monitoring and evaluating the effective implementation of the government anticorruption plan; gathering, centralizing and analyzing denunciations and information forwarded to it in respect of corrupt practices, deeds and facts and similar offences; conducting all studies or investigations to name a few, it has taken practical efforts in fighting corruption and theft and mismanagement in public corporations in Cameroon. The research recommends that for the effective functioning of CONAC in corporate governance in public corporations in Cameroon, it should be given more powers equivalent to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria which has an investigative mandate and can prosecute.