Mayors need to be paid - Mayor Njong Donatus

Cameroon's one-time youngest mayor, who has been mayor of the Kumbo Council for the past 18 years, has revealed to Cameroon Headlines that, it is dangerous for mayors not to receive salaries, as they can be induced to committing errors due to the huge responsibilities devolved on them. He also decried the unfair distribution of  additional taxes.

 Mayor Njong Donatus, in this very rich interview, talks on the recent seminar organized by the party to train its new mayors, says the decentralization process is slow and council additional taxes are not fairly distributed by FEICOM. He says much development has been done in Kumbo under his reign, but the community still expects more from the state. Being a resource person to new mayors, Mayor Njong says he will head the council for as long as the population wants him. He spoke to Cameroon Headlines' T.B. AZOHNWI.

Mayor Njong Donatus, you have been one of the resource persons during this two-day seminar on the theme participatory development and good governance in local government. What do you make of it?

Yes. The party decided to train the mayors on participatory management of the council since we are just starting a mandate and many of the mayors and their deputies are not aware of their duties and responsibilities. So the party assembled all its mayors and got some experts to empower them on their roles and responsibilities. We looked into the issue of the economic manifesto of the party because this is important for the municipal administrators to make sure that their application of the laws should take cognizance of the socialist dimension, NESPROG, the concept of decentralization, the mission of the council, the duties of the various organs, the budget, communication etc. It was important for the mayors to be briefed on all these at the beginning of their mandate.

NJONG DONATUS, MAYOR OF KUMBO COUNCIL

Can you talk a little more on the issue of decentralization, is it being well applied?

Decentralization is ongoing in Cameroon. It is a process which we can say that the profound stage took place in 2010 when the ministries started giving certain responsibilities to the councils. I want to say that the process is very slow, because we expect to have the state budget devolving a percentage to the councils so that the population can be able to conceive, design their projects and implement them. But the issue of deciding at the central level what projects have to be carried out the local level is not the best. I want to think that this slow rate of the process is because a lot of responsibilities have been given to the councils with very little means, both human and financial. Also, by law, the mayors are contracting authorities, yet the Minister of Public Contracts has to identify some councils and create tender boards and appoint members to run the board, so what happens to those areas without tender boards? The only reason they give is that those councils don’t have the means to take care of the tender board, but we know that the state tender boards that sit are paid with state resources, why can those resources not be transferred to the councils to pay their own tender boards? I think decentralization is slow because some of our officials do not want to see the country decentralized.

You are Mayor of the Kumbo council which is being run by the SDF for many years now, what are some of the changes the party has brought to the municipality?

Come to Kumbo and see, talk to the people and they will tell you. I have been mayor of Kumbo for 18years and if I start to number the changes that have taken place in Kumbo, I fear that I may not be able to name a tenth of them. I published a journal last year on the activities of the past five years, I invite you to come and see for yourself.

Even with so many changes, I believe there are some challenges still being faced, what are some of them?

The major challenge is having those projects which are not solely the responsibilities of the councils, take-off. For instance, one can only lobby or put pressure on the state to tar a KM of road, as it is an activity to be carried out by Central Government and not the council. As at now, the SATOM Company has been stationed in Kumbo and we think that the government should take this advantage and get the roads tarred. Another challenge is mentality change, to make the people more proactive. The community is made up of all of us and mentality change is very important for the progress of every people. My people’s mentality right now is proactive but I think that we have to continue to ensure that people are able to accept what is good.

How do you describe your relationship with the Supervisory Authority, we know sometimes they interfere a lot especially when it comes to finance, what is the situation in Kumbo?

I don’t have a problem with the Supervisory Authority, I know many mayors do and the simple reason is because maybe they don’t know their responsibilities. Once you know your responsibilities, you will have no problem with the Supervisory Authority. Mayors should understand that there are certain activities they cannot do without the prior authorization of the Supervisory Authority. Also, he has the prerogative to advice, and an advice can be taken or rejected.

On the issue of Council Additional Taxes, in your opinion, is it being fairly distributed?

It is not fairly distributed. I take the case of Kumbo, four years ago, I use to have in a year about 200M and above, and at that time FEICOM was repartitioning about 4Billions to councils. When the new figures of the population census started being applied by FEICOM, the council is earning less; meanwhile FEICOM is repartitioning to councils three times what they used to and now Kumbo council has 100Million in a month. When they were repartitioning 4Billion, Kumbo used to have above 200Million, now they are repartitioning 12 Billion which means that we are suppose to be having above 600 Million, but it is not the case. I don’t understand the gymnastics being used in the distribution, and I think the population census was tailored to favour some councils. Six years ago the Kumbo council received more than Buea council, of course, the population of Kumbo is more than that of Buea. However presently, if the Kumbo council is having 40M, Buea is having about ninety something. As a matter of fact, Kumbo council receives less than Oku council!  Which means that in the Northwest region, after Bamenda council is Oku council and when Oku is not up to a major quarter in Kumbo?  There is no equity and justice in the distribution of Council Additional Taxes. I think that it is high time a new population census is conducted.

What about mayors’ salaries, are you already receiving it?

The law says that we are supposed to be paid a salary, but since 2004 when that law was promulgated, that article has not been implemented, because there is supposed to be a text of application signed by the Head of State. Till date, mayors don’t have a salary, and they are being given state responsibilities. I honestly cannot understand because the state budget has been budgeting FCFA 4 billion for that yearly but the decree has not been signed and I don’t understand why. This is very dangerous because it means inducing the mayors to commit errors because with the heavy responsibility and absence of a salary, how do they function? Everybody in the municipality looks up to the mayor even for a tablet of soap, school fees etc!

Mayor Njong Donatus has been mayor of Kumbo for 18 years, how long does he hope to remain at the helm of the council?

For as long as the people want me to be there. I am a servant of the people and I have accepted to take this responsibility as a vocation to work for people. The moment the people don’t want me to be there, I will leave, but I am not tired. I started this in 1996; I was the youngest mayor in this country, now I am a resource person, I have gathered so much experience that I don’t want to take away if I still have the opportunity to give it to my people.

Which way forward for the SDF in 2014?

I think that the SDF is moving on the right path. We don’t yet have a good electoral system in this country. Even with the biometrics, it is not being well handled by ELECAM. We are improving the electoral system, but we have not yet reached the transparent level, where if you win you win or vice versa. We need a single ballot paper to put an end to all forms of fraud and it will be another way forward for our democracy.  The SDF will continue to push for the country to have a credible electoral system.