Clamour for payment of salaries:

100 Mayors & councilors to march on Senate

By a correspondent in Yaounde

The coordination of Councilors and Mayors of Cameroon (COCIMACAM) has planned a head-on confrontation with Senators currently sojourning in Yaoundé for the March session of parliament.

                According to some mayors and councilors who spoke to The Median on condition of anonymity, 100 members of the coordination have been chosen to travel to Yaounde to confront each of the one hundred (100) Senators before the end of the March 2016 session.

                “Our aim is to call the attention of the senators to our collective plight as elected Mayors and councilors in Cameroon. It is unacceptable that we are yet to get a franc of our salaries despite the law promulgated since 2010 and the presidential decree of 16 September 2015 laying down the modalities for the payment of the salaries,” complained one of the councilors.

                Asked why they are targeting the Senate and not the National Assembly, the councilors and mayors said “we want to remind the senators that they were elected by councilors and mayors, and that we expect them to also support us in pressing on the government to pay befitting monthly salaries to us as is the case in all other African countries.

                The members of the coordination wondered why Senators should stay mute on the issue of salaries for mayors and councilors when no sooner did they get to Parliament than their salary situation was regularized. “It intrigues us that even the senators who owe their presence in Parliament to councilors, have also elected to be taciturn on the plight of councilors.”

                Members of the Coordination of Mayors and Councilors have maintained that the non payment of salaries to mayors only gives enough reason for Mayors to embezzle council funds in order to make ends meet.

                “It is preposterous and outlandish for the Ministers of Territorial Administration and Finance to be sitting on a file already signed by the President of the Republic over seven months ago,” lamented one of the councilors.

                It should be recalled that in 2010, Government introduced a Bill in Parliament bearing on the modalities for the payment of salaries for Mayors and remunerations and allowances for councilors. The bill was voted into Law in December 2010 and a presidential Decree of 16 September 5015 spelt out the detailed texts of application of the new law. Yet, ever since, the ministers concerned have refused to implement the instructions of the head of state, and this despite the creation of the National Decentralization Fund by the Prime Minister.

                “It is on these grounds that we of the Coordination are planning a confrontation with Senators in Yaoundé before the end of this March session of parliament to take them to task and to cause them to urge the two ministers concerned to pay the arrears of our salaries and allowances.