Editorial: Administrators should stop extortion!.

"Prefects" (SDOs) as they are called, ensure the general management of the civil service in their territorial jurisdiction, with the exception of those in the Ministry of Justice.

Despite the creation of the Ministry of Decentralisation and Local Development, to which councils should report to, SDOs remain ‘supervisory authorities’, preside at council sessions and approve voted budgets before they ever go operational!

As ‘council supervisory authorities’, they earn seating allowances.  Gullible mayors are known to have been grumbling that some unscrupulous administrators often demand fuel from councils as well as vehicles.

It is also open knowledge that when they make official tours of their areas of command, all other government services contribute money for their movements.

Traditional rulers, considered in Cameroon as auxiliaries of the administration, also demand contributions from their subjects to entertain and take care of the transport of visiting administrators.

During official public festivities like the National Day, Youth Day, Women's Day, Labour Day, CPDM anniversary and the anniversary of the Head of State, some unprincipled administrators are also known to have levied services and corporate bodies in their areas of command, to support receptions that do not usually cost a fraction of what they collect. They just use it to line their pockets.

That extortion from the public and other government officials has caught the attention of the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, who has ordered the malpractices, which he says brings the government to a derision of shame, to stop.

In a statement addressed to Regional Governors and Senior Divisional Officers, Minister Atanga Nji warned administrators who solicit funds from private sector stakeholders to organise official ceremonies.

The minister described such actions, which tantamount to begging, as unprofessional attitudes that can render fragile the authority of the State.

According to reports, the expenditure of public events, including administrative tours of Divisions, Subdivisions and Regions, are budgeted and the money provided by the State in their various budgets and made available in due time.

Thus, asking for money from the population is an attitude which Minister Atanga Nji finds degrading for such respected government officials, one of whom is known to have even begged for drinks for a family funeral.

The functions of such officials have over the years not only been a subject of controversy but rooted in extortion, which has transcended to councils which are the drivers of government's decentralisation form of state.

On numerous occasions, municipal authorities have been involved in public diatribes with administrative officials from MINAT, who, even with the creation of the Ministry of Decentralisation and Local Development, still ‘supervise council management’.

During the last African Nations Football Championship, CHAN of 2020, during which Limbe hosted one of the pools, the then SDO of Fako, demanded money from the Limbe I Council, to take care of some of the expenses of the competition! 

The mayor at the time questioned from which allocation did the administrator expect the council to get the money, which, in the first place, was not budgeted.

Such unwarranted harassment of mayors by some crooked administrators is not uncommon. It was so commonplace at the Wum Council of Menchum Division, to the point when then SDO was being given a send-off in 2008, the mayor publicly lambasted him.       

"If Menchum was hot for you, Mamfe, where you are going to, will be boiling. You are religious, but not all those who say "Lord, Lord…will enter the kingdom of heaven," the mayor had warned.

In some councils, administrators, despite the existence of Tender Boards, have allegedly even tried to stealthily influence awards of contracts for personal gains against the wishes of mayors and the stipulation of the rule of law.

By the General Code of Regional and Local Authorities, the administration carries out the missions of supervision and coordination of the administrative structures of the State and also of maintaining order. 

The mayor, for his part, ensures the economic, social, health, cultural and sporting development missions of his municipality, in accordance with his promises made to the electorate.

There is no question that Cameroon is facing numerous challenges, especially that of unemployment and astronomical rise in prices of basic commodities; making the cost of living extremely difficult for the vast majority.

In this light, administrators who historically are of the Napoleonic design to contribute to stability, unity and to the modernisation of the State, should not be perceived as exploiting gullible members of the public in penury.

The Guardian Post commends the Minister of Territorial Administration for calling some of his exploitative officials to order. We urge him not hesitate to sanction those who will flout his fiat.

What however continues to trigger debates, especially in the political parlance, is why councils, which are under the Ministry of Decentralisation and Local Development, should be supervised by a different ministry. 

It is one of those obnoxious issues MINAT should transmit to the lawmakers, to look into. That is if decentralisation, so cherished by the CPDM regime, has to live up to its billings to serve the public, not a pampered few.