The members of the Inter-ministerial Committee on Local Services Friday, September 17 evaluated the first generation of transfer of powers and resources by the central government to councils in 2010 and drew up a programme for a more effective second generation of transfers in 2011. The Committee chaired by the Minister of State, Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation (MINATD), Marafa Hamidou Yaya brings together representatives of all ministries involved in the transfer of powers and resources to City and Local Councils. It oversees, reflects on the effective transfer of powers within the decentralisation process and makes proposals to the National Decentralisation Council chaired by the Prime Minister, Head of Government.
The Committee members meeting for the first session in 2010, sought ways of tackling the obstacles to the effective transfer of powers and corresponding resources to the country’s 14 City Councils and 360 Local Councils. Nine Ministries since January 2010 had to effectively transfer some powers and accompanying resources to councils to accelerate local development amounting to FCFA 23,072,000,000.
Tackling Obstacles
The transfers, the Minister of State for MINATD, Marafa said, have not been totally effective. He said there were errors in the designation of credits and late delegation of the credits to Councils, delays in the award of contracts due to the extra charge in the functioning of the contracts board under the authority of the mayors, delays in the payment of services due to the non- codification of financial procedures as regards the use of resources transferred. Other obstacles, Marafa Hamidou Yaya disclosed, include the inadaptable nature of computer applications with the procedures of Communal Log-book, absence of a regulation defining the modalities of collaboration between local authorities and the State external services in the exercise of the powers transferred and the inexistence of specifications of conditions and technical modalities for the exercise of the powers transferred.
City and Local Councils, Mr Marafa said, have further been stifled in their mission of accelerating local development by the non-payment of duties and taxes by the central government into their accounts. The laws on the financial regime of regional and local authority and local fiscal system provide that the State collects windscreen licence and gambling duties, as well as land and houses registration taxes and pay into the councils accounts but this has not been done. The 2010 finance law provides that the State has to transfer FCFA 17.5 billion from the duties and taxes to the Councils. Marafa Hamidou Yaya disclosed that part of the FCFA 9,694,000,000 budgeted in 2010 as the Common Decentralisation Fund is being disbursed to the beneficiaries. Councils by law have to benefit FCFA 6,004,000,000 from the Common Decentralisation Fund in 2010 to be used for functioning as well as for investments.
The Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Committee on Local Services, Marafa Hamidou Yaya while closing the Friday’s session, enjoined the members to double their efforts in surmounting the obstacles in order to accelerate the decentralisation process.
