MINUTES OF THE WUM COUNCIL BUDGET SESSION

MINUTES OF THE WUM COUNCIL BUDGET SESSION FOR 2019 HELD IN THE WUM COUNCIL TOWN HALL ON THE 28TH OF DECEMBER 2018.

Members Present were: 20 (see attendance list attached) Members Absent Were: 5

OPENING:

The council session which was convened for the examination and adoption of the council draft budget for 2019 started at 11:37am with the singing of the National anthem.

This was followed by a word of prayer given by Mr, Komnchi Dominic leader of the U.N.D.P party in the municipality. The latter thanked the almighty father for having made it possible for the session to hold despite the prevailing socio political situation. He thanked God for granting travelling mercies to all who were present and further called on him to place all of them in a receptive frame of mind granting them the wisdom and understanding in their deliberations.

ROLL CALL.

The secretary General of Wum Council Berthy B Cheng Edickson conducted the roll call and 20 Councilors answered present, four of whom were by proxies, thus a 2/3 quorum was formed. She then read out the agenda of the day and this was moved correct by councilor Mendi Stephen and adopted unanimously.

The Lord Mayor explained the reasons for these proxies but regretted that a few were absent. He recounted the risk he underwent in order to be present in the session and said others were not exceptions.

MAYOR’S WELCOME SPEECH.

Councilor Dighambong Anthony Mvo, Mayor of Wum Council called for a minute of silence to be observed on behalf of the fallen brothers and sisters during the Socio Political upheaval in the North and South West Regions.

He informed his fellow colleagues that the ministry of decentralization and local development allocated the sum of One Hundred Million (100,000,000) francs each to Councils for the execution of projects come 2019. These efforts of MINDEDEVEL were in a bit to trigger effective decentralization in Cameroon, he concluded by saying the projects were already identified. He then welcomed members and fellow Councillors to their annual Rendez-vous most especially the S.D.O of Menchum Mr. Kamga Charles and his entourage.

He gave a brief account of their stewardship over the past five (5) years and said ”we have scored the goals for our mandate, our promises realized, our achievements are visible”. The chairman informed Councillors that the socio political situation that plagued the two English speaking regions resulted to a decadence of economic activities in the Wum municipality reason why he christened the Wum council 2019 budget “The Budget of Economic Development, Relief and Unity in Diversity”. He said the 2019 budget had witnessed an increase  of 12,74% to make up with what was unable to be accomplished and to also have a realistic and feasible budget that would serve and meet the aspirations and needs of the population.

The 2019 draft budget had the following highlights;

-        The investment expenses stood at 58% more than the prescribed stipulated 40%

-        Functional expenses 41.19% less than the prescribed 60% maximum.

-        The personal expenditure stood at 30.82% of the functional budget again less than the required maximum of 35% of the functional budget.

Furthermore, he numerated a list of envisaged projects that the Council would wish to execute gotten from the annual investment plan drawn out village by village and per their different ministries. There included

-        Equipment of GS Nyoh with two chairs and two tables,

-        Construction of two classrooms at GS Nyoh,

-        Supply of 60 benches at GS Nyoh,

-        Financial Support to BIHDUMLEM,

-        Supply of equipments for Local solution to 19 villages

-        Rehabilitation of Court Yard to Waindo road,

-        Construction of a bridge at PK 4.5 on the GTHS Junction to Kecha,

-        Construction of a bridge at PK 0+ 100 on the Wanangwen-Ngouh Road Support in the LRAs in the fight against plastic materials

-        Equipment of 200 technical and Veterinary centre Kesu

-        Construction of 200 technical and Veterinary centre Kesu

-        Aerial single phase Electrification of Ukpwa

-        SAR/SM Wum, equipping infrastructure in the vocational Training college,

-        SAR/SM Wum, Construction of a Carpentry workshop,

-        Rehabilitation of Tsakendze Prince Bilingual (Kesu) road (2.5Km),

-        Organization of Wum council tournament,

-        Purchase of a second handed grader in Wum Council

-        Planting of ornamental trees along major streets in Wum Council area,

-        Opening of gutters from TRADEX to TOTAL roundabout,

-        Equipment support to vulnerable populations

-        Construction of a metallic culvert between Sir Wallang's building and the Main Market;

-        Opening of gutters from Morning star to Kelly Killi (Bu road)

-        Construction of a modern toilet at GS Itiaku;

-        Extension of Water supply for a distance of 2Km and the construction of 2 stand taps at

-        Tselakeghei;

-        Construction of water source at Waindo;

-        Rehabilitation of a water catchment at Cheregha overside

-         Extension of Water supply for a distance of 2.5Km and the construction of 3 stand taps Cheregha overside.

-        Rehabilitation of four (04) classrooms in G.S Agulli

He once more saluted the devoted, brave and courageous business persons and called on all to practice the spirit of forgiveness and togetherness quoting that although the eyes don’t see each other, they see things together, blink simultaneously and cry together. The Mayor’s speech ended with some mind searching wise sayings, he wished all in attendance the best, calling on those who could not act to speak and those who could not speak at least to meditate and pray.

THE SENIOR DIVISIONAL OFFICER’S SPEECH

The Senior Divisional Officer for Menchum, Mr. kamga Charles, expressed great pleasure to be part of the session. While acknowledging the presence of councillors he thank the chairman to have invited him which was a recognition of the role he plays vis-a-vis the council and wished everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2019. He wittily presented a picture of the problems that were plaguing the Wum council as an institution and the municipality as a whole. At the outset, he pointed out that the ending year 2018 had not been a good one for Wum council and the municipality because of the socio political situation that prevailed. He however, was optimistic of 2019 if peace returns. Talking about the budget, he appreciated and noted that it was a well prepared budget that experience an increase despite the unhealthy atmosphere, to him this was glaring of the great ambitions of the Mayor for the municipality.

He appreciated the fact that 58.81% of the budget consisted of investment expenses to improve the living standards of the population especially alleviating the suffering of victims of the war and 30.82% of the functional budget destined for personnel expenses.

He expressed great alarm over what was experienced in 2018 which according to him was something to worry about. His other worry was that the rate of execution of the investment budget in Menchum division for 2018 was less than 40% and they were other projects whose execution had not begun due to the prevailing situation. According to him, what was important was to know whether the budget would be executed and the condition for its execution was for peace to reign. He made it known that the crises are a National issue as well as local.

He felt that so long as the crises were concern, what was expected of each and everyone in his/her own little way was bringing the violence to a halt. He castigated in strong terms the acts of killing, destruction, burnings and rampant arrest of innocent citizens. He told the assembly that since the outbreak of violence, they had seen no positive change. To him, a sustainable long lasting solution to the crisis was primordial. The boss of the division informed the councilors that the national coordinator of the disarmament commission was appointed with three regional delegates from Mora, Bamenda, and Buea respectively. The role of that commission, he said was to take care of everything after fighters had dropped their weapons and requesting for those guns to be dropped was the role of everybody. Let us take this message of peace initiation to our brothers. He said to give the budget a chance for its execution, there should be peace, for the Mayor cannot execute the budget in an atmosphere of war. He finally called on the military to stop rampant arrest of civilians and reiterated the evangelization of peace by all, this was welcomed with applause.

READING AND ADOPTION OF MINUTES

Considering the fact that the minutes had been with councilors someday ago and cognizance of the need for them to be digested, councilors unanimously moved for their adoption. These minutes were adopted by acclamation with no objections raised.

PRESENTATION OF 2019 DRAFT BUDGET BY THE CHAIRMAN OF FINANCE COMMITTEE

This was done by the Finance committee chairman, Councillor Mendi Stephen Dung. He read his committee’s report on the study they had made on the draft budget for 2019 the previous day, which was quite comprehensive and explicit. The draft budget he noted was investment oriented and called on the collaboration of sector ministries for the exploitation of the council development plan (CDP), given the fact that 77% of the projects are drawn from there.

 Professor Mendi Stephen Dung explained that statutory regulations were respected as follows; the budget is balanced at the sum of Seven Hundred and Eighty-Three Million, Six Hundred and Twenty-Eight Thousand (783.628.000) Francs CFA in revenue and expenditure, as against Six Hundred and Ninety-Five Million and Seventy Five Thousand for 2018 witnessing an increase of 88.553.000 FCFA or 12.74%.

Operational revenue stands at 347.528.000FCFA while investment revenue is 436.100.000 FCFA. He said the statutory regulations are respected as follows;

-        Investment expenditure is 460.828.000 FCFA giving about 58.81%, up from 373.800.000 FCFA which was 53.78% for last year; being an increase of 87.028.000 FCFA. Meanwhile at least 40% of total expenditure is recommended for investment.

-        Operational expenses is 322.800.000 FCFA indicating a slight increase of 1,525.000 FCFA however the percentage of 41.19% is a decrease of 5.03%, compared to 2018.

-        Personnel expenses are projected at the sum of 99.500.000 or 30.82% down from 100.000.000 FCFA for last year. It is required that personnel expenses be less than 35 of operational expenditure. Furthermore, he explain that of the projects presented, 45% are of secured source of funding. 30.4% are pending confirmation of funding sources. While 24.6% depends on council funds. He ended the presentation by calling on the adoption after debate of the draft budget by his fellow colleagues.

COMMENTS

Councilor Buo Ephraim took the floor and bought the idea of the SDO who said they could not exploit that budget in the absence of peace. He expressed doubts as to the terms of reference of disarmament commission because rampant arrest and killings were still been observed in the municipality. He said that the lives of civilians were at risk, they were targeted by the military for connivance with the Amba Boys. He doubted the criteria or procedure of preaching this peace since they were victimized for connivance.

At this juncture, the Mayor advised the councillors to get closer to the military whose leaders were present, to better mediate since the military are also their brothers. The Senator of the division Mr. Buh Sule Tegha took the floor and condemned the attitudes of the military and pleaded with the Mayor to be resident in Wum so that councillors can be courageous to better play their role. Councilor Buo Ephraim pleaded for the amount to the Chief of Services to be increased from 10,000FCFA to 15,000FCFA if they were ready to render more sacrifices to the council.  Councillor Ghong Ivor noted they were going out of the agenda and therefore observed that the council salary ‘bareme’ was not motivating enough. This was kept in view for the attention of the Mayor. The Mayor responded that the bareme in question was faked. The Mayor informed his Councillors that the electrification of Ngouh-Wanangwen were still under lobby, while Upkwa is in the 2019 state budget. Kudos to him, Kecha community is in the process of being electrified as material has already been bought pending the return of peace. Fortunately the rehabilitation of the Atue road had been approved and the dream was to realize the 2019 budget at the rate of at least 85%. After proper examination of the draft budget, Councilor Ghong Ivo did not hesitate to move for adoption by his fellow councilors. He was seconded by councilor Afuh Andrew and this was unanimously adopted by all councilors that the Wum Council budget for 2019 is adopted at the sum of 783.628.000 which balances in revenue and expenditure.

MOTIONS (DELIBERATIONS)

Deliberation n° 06/2018 of 28th December 2018 bearing on the adoption of the Wum Council 2017 Administrative Account Minutes.

Deliberation n°07/ 2018 of 28th December 2018 bearing on the adoption of the 2019 budget of Wum Council which balances in revenue and expenditure at the sum of Seven Hundred and Eighty-Three Million, Six Hundred and Twenty-Eight Thousand (783, 628, 000) Francs CFA.

Deliberation n°08/2018 of 28th December 2018 bearing on employment of holiday workers in the Wum municipality

Deliberation n° 09/2018 of 28th December 2018 bearing on the empowerment of the Mayor of Wum council to sponsor a Wum Council Unity Tournament for Team Sports leading to the 2019 end of year festivities with the sum of one million(1,000,000) francs CFA

Deliberation n°10/ 2017 of 28th December 2018 bearing on the adoption of the Wum Council Annual Investment Plan (AIP) for 2019 at the sum of Four Hundred and Twenty Million, Seven Hundred and Twenty Eight Thousand (420,728,000) Francs CFA

Deliberation n° 11/2018 of 28th December 2018 bearing on support to PTA’S of some Primary and Nursery Schools in Wum municipality.

Deliberation n° 12/2018 of 28th December 2018 that the Mayor of Wum Council is empowered to recruit temporary workers for Wum Council.

Deliberation n° 13/2018 of 28th December 2018 bearing on carrying out  of Feasibility Studies and Environmental Impact Notices on Wum Council projects for 2019.

Deliberation n° 14/2018 of 28th December 2018 empowering the Mayor of Wum council to seek funding from FEICOM for Wum Council.

Deliberation n° 15/2018 of 28th December 2018 empowering the Mayor of Wum Council to seek funding from FEICOM for Social and Low Cost Housing.

Deliberation n° 16/2018 of 28th December 2018 bearing on empowering the Mayor of Wum Council to seek funding for solar lighting and solar panels from FEICOM.

Deliberation n° 17/2018 of 28th December 2018 bearing on empowering the Mayor of Wum Council to join and  to seek funding and projects from the Global Convenant of Mayors for Climate Change in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA) focused on three pillars, universal access to energy, strengthening the local resilience and adaptation to climate change, mitigation and low emissions development.

Deliberation N° 18/2018 of 28th December 2018 bearing on empowering the Mayor of Wum Council to seek funding and/ or projects from internal and/or external development partners.

Deliberation n° 19/2018 of 28th December 2018 bearing on empowering the Mayor of Wum Council to produced city builder’s cards which shall be sold to the elite, friends and well-wishers of Wum Municipality as part of their own contribution for the development of the Municipality, ranging from Five Hundred (500)F CFA to One Million (1,000,000)F CFA.

Deliberation n° 20/2018 of 28th December 2018 bearing on the allocation of monthly allowance of Ten Thousand (10,000) F CFA to Wum Council Head of Services

Deliberation n° 21/2018 of 28th December 2018 bearing on the purchase of four (04) Motor Bikes for Wum Council to assist on youth employment.

Deliberation n° 22/2018 of 28th December 2018 bearing on empowering the Mayor of Wum Council to name the Wum Municipality as “The Land of Great Hospitality”.

Deliberation n° 23/2018 of 28th December 2018 bearing on empowering the Mayor of Wum Council to give a particular colour for the Wum Municipality, which is pink to be used subsequently for all buildings constructed within the Wum Municipality.

All the above deliberations were unanimously vote and adopted by councillors.

WORRIES

The worry of Councilor Mohamadou Amadou was the blockage of the Wum-Bamenda road. In response the Mayor said that the maintenance of national road like Wum-Bamenda N11 is not the obligation of the council but that of the state and pleaded to the members of the upper and lower house of parliament to handle the issue in parliament.

Taking the floor again, the SDO emphasized that people should not be victimized for connivance with the Amba Fighters. He called for all to go near the Amba fighters and arbitrate peace and warned on any cases of victimization for the maintenance of the Wum-Bamenda road. He again told the assembly that the Amba fighters shall be taken care of by the disarmament committee. The Senator did not also fail to inform the gathering that in the National budget, there was provision for the maintenance of Wum-Bafut road. The Mayor informed the session that the Minister of Public Contracts created tender boards in all councils last June 2018 and said the constitution of a tender board was procedural, as it was pending the appointment of Presidents of the Boards by the Minister.

CLOSING REMARKS

The Lord Mayor thanked everybody for answering present while encouraging those who braved the odds to be present in the session. He said they were all committed elite reason why their desire and wish to build Wum council was inevitable. He appreciated all proposals that led to the voting of Wum council 2019 budget. The chairman explained that it was not his wish to be out of Wum but for other administrative and security reasons. Though threats are there, but they at times build people. This explains why I had to overcome them in order to be present. He thanked the SDO and entourage for their fervent support and contributions towards the voting of the draft budget. He wished them all a safe return and a successful end of year. The meeting rose at 1:30pm with the singing of the refrain of the National Anthem.

MINUTES SECRETARY                                                                                     CHAIRMAN SECRETARY GENERAL                                                                                LORD MAYOR WUM COUNCIL                                                                                           WUM COUNCIL