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Cameroon: Transparency Imperatives
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Cameroon Tribune (Yaoundé)
26 March 2008
Posted to the web 26 March 2008
Richard Kwang Kometa
Cases of local council officials caught of late in the dragnet of the law for poor management have been many. Yet council authorities came into office during the September 22 Municipal elections last year with the firm commitment to improve on the well-being of the masses. The persistence of malpractices within some local councils across the country is disturbing not just because of the dangers of corruption but also because Cameroon has been negotiating a vital turn in local council governance that is, decentralisation.
Governance at every level must be construed as a contract between the governed and the governor. That clearly means making promises and respecting them. But in the past, the people have often found themselves at cross-roads, impatiently waiting to depose their local leaders who make themselves felt only during electoral moments. Those elected officials who disappear after election into office, are often accused of taking off time to better siphon public funds or cynically, seek to recover what they spent during campaigns. Such an attitude has rather proven to be short sighted as voters always get to know the truth even if they can not always have the weapon to overthrow such unworthy leaders.
Meeting last week with officials of the Consultation Committee for Decentralisation, Minister of State, Marafa Hamidou Yaya, rightly pointed out that decentralisation should be able to enable local councils render vital services to the populations. This should definitely be one of the reasons why the processes put in place by the State to effectively hand over management of local councils to the areas concerned must be well looked into before implementation.
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In the past, the Local Government Training Centre, CEFAM, in Buea and the Special Council Support Fund, FEICOM, with headquarters in Yaounde, have had the difficult task of either training local council staff or collecting and managing funds to ensure development in all parts of the country. But from every indication, the results have been mixed. If people can today only cite isolated cases of development projects effected by FEICOM, the presence of trainees from CEFAM in all councils across the country has not created any real conviction amongst the masses about efficiency in council management. The same old practices of corruption, and mismanagement of council property persist.
The over centralisation of management has often appeared as the actual factor accountable for the inability of the masses to enjoy the resources they generate locally.
Judging from the past misgivings that have led to a break between the top and the base as far as managing local councils in the country is concerned, it is imperative that certain prerequisites should be put in place. For instance, the need to let the people know what stages are involved in the decentralisation process, the transparency safeguards that government is putting in place among others. The past nightmares that elected council officials created among their people through false and unrealistic promises must not be allowed to continue eternally. The long term effects could be disastrous with total disillusionment by the masses and the attendant unrest that such an atmosphere could create.
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| Copyright © 2008 Cameroon Tribune. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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