Optimizing Cash and Treasury Management Performance in the Public Sector: Evidence from the Directorate General of Treasury, Financial and Monetary Cooperation, Cameroon

Abstract

This study examines how cash-flow management, liquidity management, and risk, debt and surplus-cash management jointly shape operational management performance in the Directorate General of Treasury, Financial and Monetary Cooperation (DGTCFM) of Cameroon, the department responsible for the day-to-day cash and treasury operations of the Cameroonian state. Public treasury performance in developing countries remains an under-researched area relative to corporate cash management, despite cash mismanagement being repeatedly implicated in payment arrears, unplanned borrowing and weakened public trust. The study combines a cross-sectional survey of 50 finance and accounting officers of the DGTCFM (49 usable responses, a 98 percent response rate) with 29 years (1995–2023) of secondary data drawn from Cameroon's State Financial Operations Table (Tableau des Opérations Financières de l'État, TOFE). Descriptive statistics, Spearman rank-order correlation and multiple linear regression were used to test three hypotheses linking cash-flow management, liquidity management, and risk/debt/surplus-cash management to operational performance. All three relationships were statistically significant (p < 0.01): cash-flow management (r = -0.598), liquidity management (r = -0.845), and the composite risk, debt and surplus-cash management dimension (r = -0.893). The regression equation indicates that cash-flow and liquidity management exert a positive net influence on performance once modelled jointly, whereas the risk, debt and surplus-cash dimension exerts a negative net influence, consistent with the view that debt-servicing costs and unmanaged financial risk erode operational capacity even where individual liquidity practices are sound. The paper argues that treasury performance in low-capacity public administrations is better understood as a portfolio problem cash-flow forecasting, liquidity buffering and risk/debt control acting simultaneously rather than independently and offers policy-relevant recommendations on forecasting discipline, single-account consolidation, and risk governance.