Anglophone Crisis:

Suffering Treasury, Insecurity Hamper Dev’t in Meme

By Doh Bertrand Nua in Kumba

The Lord Mayor of SDF run Kumba II Council has blamed the slow execution of Public Invest Projects in his municipality on the paltry disbursements of funds from the Buea treasury, insecurity caused by the ongoing Anglophone crisis, abduction of workers and threats on him and others.

            Mayor Forcha Martin Ndobegang was speaking in an interview he granted reporters shortly after donating some equipment to help better the living conditions of persons living with disabilities in his municipality. His outing comes barely a fortnight after he was score 0% in the execution projects in his municipality by the committee to follow-up public investment project execution in Meme that was followed by scathing criticisms from the public.

            “This is a very difficult period for councils especially we of the sub-divisional councils. We (Kumba II council) had credit cards for projects below FCFA 5 million and the last date for execution of such projects was April 30” explained Ndobegang who added “…the problem is that each time you give a contract to a contractor, he tells you he will not go and burrow money to execute since they will spend all their time running to Buea for funds and they keep telling them there are no funds at the treasury”

            He added that the council started trying to execute such projects from the month of June by going round borrowing money in order to execute the projects. He reiterated that as at the moment, the council has already completed their five projects amounting below FCFA 5 million which included; donation of 30 benches for Kosala primary school, two tables and four benches, Japanese classrooms in Kosala for the repair of two doors and two new ones amongst others.

            Mayor Ndobegang revealed that as a result of the crisis coupled with threats, a project to grade the farm to market road leading to Matoh has been slowed down.

            “Two of our workers were abducted on a farm to market road that we started bulldozing and grading. The villagers of Matoh felled trees and blocked the road. They called me and said I was grading the road to pave the way for the military to come into their village and burn their houses.                      They later went and dismantled a bridge on the road,” Ndobegang narrated, noting that the FCFA 10 million road project which was in its second phase started in 2017.

            The mayor noted that as it stands, it is difficult for the technical services to go there for reception of the project despite pressure mounted on them by the people of public works since the job was completed.