– Local government officials say Decentralisation is loud-sounding empty-talk, slow in implementation
BY ATILARIOUS AZOHNWI
Senior Divisional Officers, Government Delegates, Mayors, Municipal Treasurers and Secretaries-General of Council, and Local Stakeholders charged with implementing the Decentralisation process in the South West and North West Regions are attending a three-day Regional Training and Capacity Building Workshop at the National Social Insurance Fund, CNPS Hall in Buea.
The workshop is in line with a national framework to assess the progress made so far as regards decentralisation and the promotion of local development.
After Yaoundé on May 12 – for the Centre and South Regions, Douala on May 23 – for the Littoral and West Regions, stakeholders in the decentralisation process from the North West and South West are holding in-depth discussions on the path covered by the decentralisation drive since 2010 – when the effective transfer of special powers and appropriate resources by the state to councils and city councils started.
Staggering decentralisation
Opening the workshop, Tuesday, May 24, Jules Doret Ndongo, Minister Delegate in charge of Decentralisation at the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation said since the enactment by the President of the Republic of the 2004 decentralisation laws, all powers as prescribed by the law have been transferred to councils and city councils, alongside huge funds.
In a rather sharp contradiction of his earlier statement, Minister Doret Ndongo said there are innumerable speed brakes in the implementation of the decentralisation process.
Hear him: “Just like any human endeavour, the implementation of decentralisation and the promotion of local development also face challenges and six of these risk factors are worth mentioning here, namely: the way council organs and services function; collaboration between state de-concentrated services and local authorities; council governance; the pooling of resources through inter-council cooperation; decentralised cooperation, and the funding of decentralisation and local development.”
Minister Doret Ndongo however admitted that if these risk factors are not properly managed, they can negatively impact the functioning of councils. He observed that impediments to decentralisation include the non-involvement of deputy mayors in the management of the council, conflicting relationship between the state and de-concentrated services and the local authorities in some councils.
Political powers without financial power
Local government officials who spoke to The SUN on the sidelines of the Buea meeting said the government has been quick to announce the transfer of political and administrative powers, but is yet to decentralise financial powers to the council.
Asked what is impeding the decentralisation process, Mayor Nkeng Michael Akamin of the CPDM-run Muyuka Council said: “there is no money. People don’t want to send money to the grassroots for development to take place. What do you want us to do? If you give somebody too much money, he will know what to do with it.”
He said the law should be clear on what percentage of investment funds should be sent to the local councils without which decentralisation will remain loud in tone, but slow in implementation.
On what he expects will change after the workshop, he was rather pessimistic.
“What do you want me to expect? That from the blues the situation will change? So long as the laws are not there, we will still be where we are.”
Mayor Mbongo Alfred Ngoe of Ekonko Titi towed the same line with his Muyuka peer. “The speed brakes include inadequate (financial) means and the haphazard selection of decentralisation projects,” he said.
Chief Moukondo Daniel Ngande, Mayor of the SDF-run Tiko Council and Mayor Mbongo of the CPDM-led Ekondo Titi Council are all agreed that the mayors are said to be vote holders, but the selection of projects to be funded still remains the preserve of the ministries concerned.
“Yaoundé just imposes to an extent where you realise that a school which has over five classrooms is given more, while that without a single classroom is left with nothing. People may not even understand. Because you are the vote-holder, they may think that it is you who is taking all projects to one place,” Mbongo told The SUN.
Mayor Moukondo chimed in to say that most projects are dropped from space, which projects are not people oriented. “You may be given a health centre near an already existing one. They should give us the money, let us identify and implement the projects.”
Mayors complain that some administrators in the decentralisation chain have a rubber-stamp approach to handling issues, such that change is near impossible.
“We have realised that the central government is still dragging its feet in devolving financial resources to accompany the decentralisation process,” Mayor Cletus Fongu of the SDF-run Bamenda III Sub-divisional Council lamented.
Mayor Moukondo was however optimistic when he said that though the decentralisation process is slow better days lie ahead.
“Decentralisation is a gradual process. Perhaps with time, things will get better. The ministry of public works started with FCFA 13 million, they’ve moved to FCFA 27 million and perhaps the other ministries will evolve same,” Chief Moukondo said.
But while they hope for other ministries to open up, the Ministry of Arts and Culture is said to be making decentralisation a near myth. It occupies the last position on the decentralisation index, while the Ministry of Basic Education stands tall.
Corruption thwarting decentralisation
According to some local government authorities, some corrupt officials are mounting roadblocks on the decentralisation pathway.
“There is no uniformity in the allocation of resources to the local councils,” Mayor Mbongo of Ekondo Titi said, adding that “While a certain council has over FCFA 100 million for investments from the decentralisation credits, another may just have only one classroom or a road. Anyway, we can’t argue because some people have their persons in those ministries that allocate the resources. There is need for uniformity so that the councils can choose priority projects.”
Asked if they are compelled to grease the palms of Yaoundé officials or lobby to get funding for projects, Mayor Fongu of Bamenda III responded that “Les Cameroun c’est le Cameroun” (Cameroon is Cameroon), apparently referring to the unending corruption known to be retarding the country’s growth.
He said mayors have so many projects but after following the laid down procedures to get funding, very little is gotten.
Debts choking councils
Mayor Ducan Molindo of Limbe II Sub-divisional Council says they are barely surviving, after borrowing hundreds of millions to fund development projects. His words: “In my council, I think I have borrowed enough money from FEICOM. I’ve borrowed over FCFA 500 million to construct my council chambers. I borrowed over FCFA 135 million to put water in Mukunda Village; I borrowed FCFA 160 million to put water in Mukundange Village. I think I have borrowed enough money for the council.”
Quizzed whether the council is surviving despite the huge debts, Mayor Molindo hesitated, but said he doesn’t think so.
“These are social debts and we are paying them already,” he responded, stating that “The decentralisation process is so timid in the sense that we are not able to follow up even projects that have been put in place. Again, we are having problems getting the expected subventions from the state.”
He said sub-divisional councils are normally supposed to have their taxes directly from the companies operating within their municipalities, but that is not the case. “Everything goes to the city council. We have practically nothing.”
Overbearing supervisory authorities
Some mayors who sued for anonymity said some Senior Divisional Officers, SDOs, are overbearing.
“The SDOs think that the mayors are their stooges. They think they can just call you and ask for money at will. They ask for money before signing our documents, which money cannot be accounted for. This is certainly why some of them are hindering the decentralisation process,” a mayor said.
“You can’t imagine that an SDO will go and drink in a bar and call you the mayor to go and pay. We are really having hard times as mayors. Every small thing, they come asking for money,” another angered mayor bemoaned.
Mayors without salary 8-montsh after Biya decree
Last September 16, 2015 the Head of State decreed remuneration for Mayors and their deputies, government delegates and their deputies.
Eight months after, Minister Jules Doret Ndongo says legal provisions have been laid down so as to ensure the remuneration of municipal authorities and their assistants.
Last January 26, 2016 the Prime Minister and Head of Government, Philemon Yang ordered that remuneration to municipal executives will be paid from the FCFA 10 billion decentralization fund.
Mayors have expressed anger regarding the delay, barely falling short of taking to the streets.
“We are not even sure the salaries will be paid any time soon because that has been said many a time. We started hearing about salaries for mayors in 2010. Up to this moment, nothing has been paid. The mayors are composed people. Otherwise, there would have been a reaction. Mayors are not as poor as you may think. We still live on our allowances,” mayor Molindo of Limbe II said.
Mayor Mbongo of Ekondo-Titi told The SUN that: “It is not today the presidential decree was signed. But I think that the salaries will be paid when the necessary means are there. We know that government machinery grinds slowly but surely. It will eventually come.”
Muyuka’s Mayor Nkeng said he has been waiting for his account to be credited with his salary as decreed by President Biya. “If I had my salary already, I would have already announced to you,” Nkeng said.
Simon Sona Makia, Municipal Treasurer of Nguti and Joseph Ewome Njie, Secretary General of the Buea Council said mayors are supposed to wield political and administrative powers, along with financial powers without which their power is meaningless.
Challenges hindering decentralisation
Experts say there is the need to ensure balanced and harmonious development. Most frontier councils are left to themselves in terms of development.
Inadequate human and financial resources are put at the disposals of the councils. Only 4% of state revenue is transferred to councils, far below the African average of 8%. Credits are delegated, not transferred; funds are disbursed late and mayors barely have the capacity to manage the funds put at their disposal.
There is the absence of a complete legal framework for decentralisation. The putting in place of a National Decentralisation Strategy is necessary if at all decentralisation must blossom.
It is also very difficult to measure the rate of implementation of decentralisation given the absence of a decentralisation index.
While there is the need for a statute to be adopted for council workers, the Local Government Training Centre (CEFAM) needs to be overhauled and reformed to provide training that fits the needs of decentralisation.