Mbonge needs a proper treasury

He made this request in an interview with The Median, on the day of the second quarterly meeting on South West treasurers that took place in Mbonge, on Friday, July 18.

The Mayor of Mbonge council, Chief Ekung William Sakwe of Big Ngando village has made an appeal to the authorities to construct a permanent structure to house the sub-treasury in Mbonge. He wondered why Mbonge which is one of the oldest and biggest council areas in terms of landscape in the South West region, should not have its own treasury building. It should be noted that the Mbonge sub-treasury presently operates in a make-shift cubicle at the council premises.

Mayor Sakwe was answering to questions on the difficulties faced by the Mbonge council in generating revenue. He explained that being a rural municipality with no industries, Mbonge relies principally on the state for its income.

Other sources of income include taxes on cocoa buyers, palm oil producers, petty traders and transporters. “For activities other than the ones I just mentioned, the state does the collection and only sends the council’s quota to the regional treasury,” mayor Ekong explained further.

But Chief Ekung also highlighted difficulties faced by the council in collecting revenue. He regretted that people have to go all the way to Kumba to have their taxes assessed, “whereas if we had a tax service here in Mbonge, it would be easier for us to liaise with the tax payers and get the person on the field as most often, we have to wait until Kumba signals us before we go to the field, and this slows the collection process.”

Another issue raised by the Mayor is the absence of personnel at the treasury. “There are no seats to accommodate treasurer staff hence the treasury remains closed and financial operations are at a stand still.”

With regards the management of the vast Mbonge municipality, Mayor Ekung William said that he has been an administrator for over 23 years. “I was also born here, I went to school here and worked as a teacher here,” he said, adding that he was also CPDM sub-section president before becoming the Mayor.

He explained that he has carved out the municipality into zones for easy gathering of information. A football tournament has also been launched in 6 villages out of the more than 97 villages alongside a cultural competition to enable the youths to exhibit their talents in their varied cultures.