He who laughs last:

Biya grants ‘Father Christmas’ salaries & allowances for mayors
- Apart from the normal monthly salaries, mayors and gov’t delegates will now also receive allowances for duty post, representation, housing, vehicle, water, electricity, telephone, travel etc etc.
By Essan Ekoninyam in Yaounde
The president of the republic on Wednesday 16 September 2015 signed a decree fixing modalities for remuneration of government delegates of the fourteen city councils and mayors and councillors of the 360 local councils in the country. The presidential decree also allocated allowances and other advantages to be enjoyed by council executives.
    By virtue of the presidential decree, government delegates shall have a basic monthly salary of 400.000 FCFA, mayors 250.000 FCFA, assistant government delegates 200.000 FCFA and assistant mayors 150.000 FCFA.
    These salaries of government delegates and mayors shall not cumulate with their salaries as civil servants or agents of public and para-public institutions. And the mayors will only be entitled to these salaries when they are effectively resident in the locality of the council as duly attested by the SDO of the locality.
    The salaries of government delegates and mayors will be supported by the decentralisation credits imputed in the state budget.
    Apart from monthly salaries, government delegates and mayors are now also entitled to various allowances and advantages. Some of the allowances include that for duty post and representation. For purposes of these allowances councils have been classed in to four (4) categories depending on their annual budgets.
    By virtue of this classification and upon deliberation by the councillors and the approval of the MINADT, government delegates will receive duty post allowances ranging from 500.000 to 100.000 FCFA. Their assistants will receive 1/3 of these amounts.

    Also, government delegates and mayors shall receive additional FCFA 250.000 and FCFA 150.000 respectively as allowance for representation. Assistant government delegates and assistant mayors will take home 1/3 of these amounts.
    The other advantages provided for government delegates and mayors include free housing, allowance for housing maintenance and allowances for telephone, water and electricity.   
    What’s more, government delegates and mayors shall also receive session allowances, mission allowances and transport requisition for their displacements.
    Meanwhile, grand councillors of city councils and councillors of local councils shall also be entitled to session allowances and transport requisition. The session allowances will range from between 150.000 to 50.000 depending on the category of the council.
    It should be noted that the presidential decree allocating remuneration, allowances and other advantages for council executives and councillors comes after a long period of anxious wait by the latter. The decree thus brings to an end the grumbling and complaints by mayors and councillors.
    And that may just explain why mayors and councillors of both the CPDM and the opposition parties have not stopped sending motions of support and thanks to president Biya following the publication of the much awaited decree.