Meme mayors, gov’t delegate on hot seat as SDO announces frequent controls

The Senior Divisional Officer,SDO, for Meme, Koulbout Aman David has announced that Members of the Meme Divisional Local Finance Development Committee, CODEFIL, will henceforth carry out series of checks and controls in the various councils every three months to ensure that there is a good management of council's revenue and thus used for its intended purposes.

The SDO, as Supervisory Authority of the councils and front line CODEFIL, member also reminded the Mayors that they should do all at their level to appropriately strategize ways to facilitate collection of revenue at the level of local councils and equally, engage in forceful recovery while reminding them that things will never be the same again, especially as decentralisation is a reality and has come to stay.

He was speaking during the CODEFIL meeting which brought together all the DOs of Meme, Mayors, Government Delegate to the Kumba City Council, Divisional Treasurer, Municipal Treasurers, the Southwest Chief of FEICOM, Meme Taxation Chief, Representative of Customs and other stakeholders in the Division.

October 30, 2014, in the conference hall of the Divisional Office in Kumba. This announcement by the SDO, THE SUN, is reported to have send shock waves down the spines of the municipal authorities.

The Mayor f Kumba III, John Kona Makia hinted that the announcement of the SDO will enable sleeping Mayors to sit-up and take the development of their respective area seriously. He mentioned that the outcome of the meeting have been very enriching and that revenue collection drive in the municipality will take a different dimension.

The Meme boss noted that, following Arrete No.0000011/MINATD of 27th January,2012, bearing modalities, organizations and functioning of the Divisional Local Finance Development Committee, the Meme Committee was created with a Prefectoral order No.230, appointing statutory members with a mission to among other things, contribute to the successful management of councils in Meme Division.

He said that, though the committee since its creation has not met, it does not mean it has neglected or under-mind its importance. Rather, with the instruments, organs and trends of events relating to the proper follow up of the decentralization process, the committee has decided to meet in order to exchange ideas and make resolutions and recommendations as to the way forward.

“Within the frame work of CODEFIL, and apart from the mission of collecting maximum revenue, there are other key issues that falls within the ambit of our area of action that needs proper follow-up and implementation. As members of CODEFIL, we are required to effectuate control missions to check the administrative functioning and management of funds in all the councils.

However, it should not be any surprise for Mayors and Municipal Treasures to henceforth receive after every three months, a control team within the Frame work of CODEFIL”, the SDO noted. It should however be noted that decentralization is a method put in place to ensure good governance in the country.

During the meeting, that witnessed exchanges with questions and answers from participants, the Divisional Chief of Taxation Tsafack Guilaume noted that Taxes is improving the level of revenue for the Councils with about 2190 tax payers as per September 2014 in Meme Division. With a total of FCFA 246 Million that was envisaged as of January to September 2014 a surplus of FCFA 29 Million have been collected.

He equally observed that there is an inadequate support from the Councils during tax drive. He announced a door to door campaign on land Tax and forceful recovery in the days ahead. The Meme taxation equally announced the imminent creation of special centre in Mbonge.

Talking to THE SUN after the meeting, the Meme Boss explained that, CODEFIL is a committee which has to reflect on how to increase local finances at the level of councils. The aim of the CODEFIL is to improve on the local council’s finances or revenue collections.

This means that if we do not work very hard at the local level, even at the level of the hierarchy, the decentralization process cannot succeed. We can not only count on Yaounde or FEICOM to increase revenue. We should work hard on the field so that the output would be understood by the hierarchy who has to send money to these councils.

“I want to thank immensely, the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, who had struggle to put financial means at the disposal of CODEFIL. I think everything being equal, by God’s grace, we can work hard on the field and we will be able to meet with the expectations of the Minister.

Decentralization is going with the population, because from the various communities, they know what they need from the councils and from the government.

So when they have problems, they should forward them to the Mayors who are well position to tell the government what has been done and what has not been done, so that things can be well organized to the benefit of these local people. The people on their part should help the councilors in their council areas to collect revenue by denouncing illegal and clandestine off loading of Boats and Containers in the area.

Such data can increase council revenue. There is the need for collaboration between Mayors, Divisional Officers and the taxation department in the recovery of revenue in their council areas or Municipalities. “All necessary measures must be taken to ensure that our council administrators remain outstanding and worth emulating”, the SDO said.