By Talla Christopher
The Mayor of Dikome Balue Council, in the Ndian Division of the South West Region has expressed regrets over the destructions of the residence and office of the Divisional Officer, the office of Elections Cameroon, ELECAM building and that of the gendarmerie Brigade office of Dikome Balue, following, according to him, egoistic tendencies and misjudgment of unidentified persons in the area.
Lord Mayor Itoe Benjamen Njio was addressing Councilors of the Council over the weekend on the occasion of the examination and adoption of the 2017 management and administrative accounts of the Council.
According to the Mayor, apart from these destructions recorded in the Council area, there was equally the ransacking of the Council Chambers and all the installations, documents and computers carted away including the sweeping of the Mayor’s residence with all its contents taken away.
The Mayor equally opined that “It is melancholic to hear and see all these things we have struggled to bring home being destroyed by same self. God willing, we are still alive during this epoch to see the pages of History being recorded”.
Mayor Itoe hinted that despite the prevailing socio-political crisis which has engulf the area, bringing much fear, threats and psychological torture, the Council however took care their workers, by paying salaries, paying all the outstanding debts of the Tenders Board of the Council, paid all outstanding bills to the various economic operators, contributions for national events, paid all councils’ contributions to development partners like the PNDP to the construction of Betenge market and equally submitted projects for the electrification of Dikome Town, Betenge Bonji Difenda.
The Mayor regretted that the Council would have loved to see the realization of its most cherished projects which are the construction of the Dikome Balue-Difenda Balue road and the construction of the hospital at Dikome Balue, but however expressed worries that it is very lamentable and derogating to see the municipality retrogressing instead of advancing to attain the Head of State’s Vision 2035.
The accounts
Presenting the accounts, the Municipal Treasurer of the Dikome –Balue Council, Iyassa Moses disclosed that, the 2017 budget for the council stood at FCFA 350.000.000 balanced in revenue and expenditure. According to the statistics, he hinted that, the revenue collected for the year under review stood at FCFA 248.208.529 and the amount for expenditure stood at FCFA 177.096.124 and FCFA 71.112.405 thus a 69.15% realization.
On his part the Divisional Officer, D.O for Dikome –Balue while representing the Senior Divisional Officer, S.D.O for Ndian, showered praises to the Council management for having realized the up to 69.15% of the 2017 budget which stood at FCFA 350.000.000. He used the council session to make a clarion call on the Council management as well as the Councilors to be personally involved in the collection of Council revenue.
The representative of the SDO, stressed on the need for the Council to exploit all avenues to generate income and not to rely on state subventions as it is the case with most Councils in Ndian Division. The SDO, equally reminded the D.O and forces of law and order to, as a matter of necessity, assist the council in their various global tax drive exercises but insisted that the council authorities, who assist the Council in this exercise should be given financial assistance at the end of each month for the exercises, notably global tax drive and clean-up exercises.
With the upcoming Presidential Elections billed for Sunday October 7th 2018, the SDO urged the Council to champion the collection of the ELECAM voter cards by registered Cameroonians on the electoral register.