From August 23 to 28, 2020, the treasurers of the communities,and administrators of the ongoing construction work works of the Cameroonian province gathered with provincial treasurer and his team for a training session in the community of Mont Saint Jean in Bafoussam.
The session was aimed to rejunate the management model and to provide the right material for the better management of our assets. This included the explanation of new and easy software program for accounting with multiple functionalities named as Banana programme. In addition to this, the training session focused on these questions, how to manage the assets entrusted to us properly? and how to have proper account of our management? Six main points articulated this reflection:
Discovering our identity: the sense of belonging
Developed in three fundamental sub-points: the awareness of belonging, the feeling that comes from this awareness and the commitment that underpins it. Indeed, it was a question of invitation to know oneself as an individual (self-knowledge), to know oneself as a religious and to belong to a community of which one is called to know and love which opens oneself to the call of the Spirit, to love and to fraternal communion.
The treasurer’s competences: what does the Code of Canon Law say?
A call to be administrator of goods is the responsibility for the acquisition of goods and their alienation. Above all, he is called to account for his management. He must therefore work in perfect collaboration with his superior. His competence is the ability to assume this responsibility. His field of action depends on the superior who appoints him. He is appointed for a fixed term and should only be dismissed for a serious cause. However, he or she may be transferred or assigned to another mission.
The treasurer ‘s skills: what do the NABs say?
The NABs (Norms on the Administration of Assets) have the objectives and purposes of completing and clarifying certain norms of the administration of assets, providing clarification on the administrative management of assets and information on assets, and defining the frameworks and limits of the administrator’s power in order to facilitate his task.
Personnel management
Here the emphasis is on the need for well-trained and qualified staff. Also discussed (in relation to the staff who is our closest collaborators) on salary management, leave management, automatic increment management, night supplements, leave allowances and the length of leave.
Accounting management
The necessity of accounting as an indispensable element that can help the treasurer to exercise his ministry was discussed here. We have thus defined accounting as a management tool that makes it possible to translate into writing (or accounting language) the various operations of a structure (family, community, business, company, etc.).
The presentation of provincial heritage and projects.
This point allowed us to take note of the various assets of the province. In this section, we noted: houses, land, the automobile fleet, generators, banks, caisses, and investments, for-profit and non-profit projects.
This training session allowed all the participants to get a first-hand look at the realities of the province and its many challenges with respect to assets and their management.
