Cash-strapped Konye Council votes colossal budget

Councilors of the Konye Council have been advised to appeal to the Governor of the South-West Region to intervene in the recovery of a debt owed by a contractor, Israel Kombe, to the tune of 11 million FCFA. Kombe, through his company, Bau Mani Bauk I Entreprise, engaged in revenue collection for the Konye Council in November 2013, allegedly on the recommendation from the offices of the Governor and the Meme SDO. A few months after the contract was awarded, he accrued a debt of 4.6 million FCFA through deferred payments into the council’s coffers.

Even though the 1st assistant SDO for Meme, Verkline Epulewane eps. Mbua, has assured the councilors that the problem would have a solution sooner than later, as the SDO has promised to pass on their complaint to the Governor for swift action some councilors still expressed fears as to the Governor’s impartiality given that he allegedly influenced the award of the contract to Mr. Kombe’s company.

This comes at a time when the Konye Council is in dire need of funds to construct an ultra-modern guest house worth 320 million FCFA to use as bait to convince the government to launch the Kumba-Mamfe road project at Konye. The architectural plan for the building was unveiled during the budgetary session by Verkline Epulewane. Some fund-raising ideas suggested by the Mayor, George Musima Lobe, include the construction of business centres, the establishment of 2 quarries, and an order to all business persons to put up signboards so as to ease council tax collection.

The 2016 budget adopted at the Budgetary Session stood at 870 million FCFA balanced in revenue and expenditure. The budget has witnessed a giant leap of 310 million FCFA from last years’ on account of a 396 million FCFA loan from FEICOM for the building projects. The mayor laid to rest the anxiety of some councilors as to how a loan of such magnitude would be repaid. He explained that the projects envisioned are income-generating avenues that, in themselves, would raise the finances to pay back the loans.

While lauding his councilors for their courage to adopt a budget of such magnitude, Mayor Musima equally called on them to work genuinely, not acting as scribes who only note faults and disclose them during council sessions, but taking steps to observe lapses and resolve them early enough, only reporting on results achieved come council sessions.