Mayor threatened with vote of no-confidence

The Mayor of Tombel Council, Rose Ngassa Menone, and 18 out of 34 Councillors remain divided over the execution rate of the 2015 investment budget of the municipality.

On December 30, 2015, the Councillors walked out of a 2016 budget session on grounds that the executive cannot be given another budget when only five percent of the previous investment budget has been executed.

Mayor Rose Ngassa said the walkout was a calculated political move to slam a vote of no confidence on her.

Meanwhile, the session programmed for 10:00 am only began about 1:00 pm after the Senior Divisional Officer for Kupe-Muanenguba, Anderson Ketong, diffused the tension.

When the session began, 33 Councillors answered present and signed the attendance sheet before moving out of the deliberation chambers.

At this juncture, the SDO ordered for the session to progress and disclosed that the Councillors were begrudged because of the non-payment of sitting allowances for four council sessions in 2014 and the purported five percent budget execution.

"I got information of a certain movement to give the Mayor a vote of no confidence. I wanted to hear from the Councillors why it happened. I did not come here to defend factions. I came to defend positive principles; what some of you are waiting for me to do I will not do it. Those who make a lot of noise that SDO; Madam Ngassa everywhere money, money, money..., you don't know who this SDO is. I am not a beggar... everybody has drunk beer from Madam Ngassa," the SDO said.

The SDO stated that the sessions in question never held.

According to Ketong, the statistics presented were not from competent State sources thus raising a lot of questions.

He said that even if the case were to be as presented, the Mayor could not be blamed entirely. The SDO pointed out that the council lacks a contracts award board besides the numerous bottlenecks in the contract award procedure.

Ketong wondered about the recurrent problems in Tombel if the plans are not somewhat diabolic. He recalled that all over the Division, the Mayor of Tombel had the highest number of votes during the election of Mayors yet those of Nguti and Bangem have remained peaceful.

The SDO advised the Mayor to revisit her strategies and look for best ways to regroup her Councillors for meaningful development.

Debunking the statistics from the Councillors, Kupe-Muanenguba Public Contracts Delegate explained that some projects for 2015 worth FFCA 130 million will be executed early this year. The delay, he said, was not the Mayor's.

According to the Delegate, the contracts sector has many stakeholders who can slow the process be they those who pay or execute projects.

Meanwhile, before walking out of the hall, several Councillors were spotted suspiciously inspecting bottled mineral water placed in front of them.

Others simply changed theirs with water from elsewhere, while some removed the water from the table and placed it under the chairs.

Some tested the pressure in the bottles to check if there were any leakages.

In an interview with reporters, Rose Ngassa said she was aware that some of those agitating have burning ambitions to be Mayors, but urged them to wait for another mandate.

She lamented that instead of helping her as a woman to best develop Tombel, some are bent on frustrating her vision.

At the end of the session, she ordered for the payment of allowances to Councillors for the four sessions of 2014 and offered them two cows.

The Councillors that sat through the session adopted a budget of FCFA 650 million for 2016 as against FCFA 700 million for 2015.