The Mayor of Muyuka Council, Michael Nkeng Akamin, has stated that despite the favourable and conducive working conditions that have been provided to Council workers, some of its employees have vehemently decided to be lazy, unruly and have indulged in the embezzlement and misappropriation of Council revenue that is meant to provide basic social amenities to the population of Muyuka.
While condemning such deviant behaviour that has made the realisation of envisaged projects difficult, and has put the economic drive of the Municipality in a stalemate, the Mayor appealed to all those involved in such practices to desist from it or will be fired from the Council if they persist.
Mayor Nkeng was addressing Councillors of Muyuka Council on Saturday, July 12, during the first ordinary session of the Council to examine and adopt the administrative, management and stores management accounts of the Council for the 2013 fiscal year.
According to the Mayor, the Council last year was able to generate FCFA 515,818,079 from a budget estimate of FCFA 776,764,675. This amount, the Mayor added, represent a realisation rate of 66.406 percent.
From the above amount, recurrent revenue stood at FCFA 396,651,167, while investment revenue stood at FCFA 119,166,912.
Meanwhile, expenditure for the 2013 financial year was further broken as follow; current expenditure FCFA 297,860,914 and investment expenditure FCFA 151,913,470.
From the above extrapolation, the Mayor went on, the Council recorded an excess revenue of FCFA 60, 043, 695.
This amount, the Mayor said, was used to refurbish and supply medical equipment to the Bavenga-Ikata Health Centres, accelerate work on the completion of the Muyuka mortuary, construct an incinerator in the Muyuka District Hospital, construct two classrooms, supply 60 benches and two teachers, tables and chairs to Government School Lilale.
The Council equally provided scholarships to deserving students, rehabilitated and maintained existing streets and the extension of farm to market roads to facilitate the evacuation of farm produce.
Mayor Nkeng congratulated all the stakeholders, especially his predecessor, Chief Johannes Mokoto Njie for his commitment towards the realisation of these projects.
The Mayor said the community was not asking the impossible from the Council, but the obvious.
In other to impact the lives of the community, all stakeholders must be united in hearts and mind, politicians especially CPDM militants, should put an end to petty grievances, false stories, petition writing, recriminations and worn-out dogmas which, he said, are strangling the economic advancement of Muyuka.
“The paramount and searching questions we should ask ourselves are, how many lives have our stewardship impacted, what are the priority concerns and preoccupations of our population, how have we addressed their worries during our mandate?
This is because, at the end of our five year mandate, we’ll go back to our electorate to give an account of our stewardship,” the Mayor said.
For his part, the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, for Fako, Zang III said even though the Council recorded an excess revenue of over FCFA 60 million, the lives of the people of Muyuka were not greatly impacted.
According to the administrator, the fact that the current expenditure exceeds current investment shows that the population of Muyuka is still in dire need of social amenities such as; potable water, quality health care, electricity, access to good roads among other things.
The SDO advised the Mayor and his Councillors to explore new avenues in raising revenue and not depend on the traditional Government means of revenue collection.
He equally advised the Mayor to source foreign partners to help develop the Muyuka Municipality.
Zang III further instructed the Mayor to pick out individuals who are disturbing the smooth functioning of the Council and forward their names to him, for them to face the law.
Security Cameras Installed In Council Building
In order to step up security and check the activities of some unscrupulous Council workers and other individuals who are stealing from the Council, four security cameras have been installed in the Council building to curb this phenomenon.
According to the Mayor, this move is to ensure transparency and accountability in the management of the Council’s affairs.
