Editorial: When CPDM ridicules independent conciliator!.

Following the promulgation of the law instituting the General Code of Regional and Local Authorities, with major implications for local governance and Anglophones’ quest for self-determination, the office of a Public Independent Conciliator was created for the North West and South West Regions.

It is charged with examining and amicably settling disputes between users and the regional and council administrations, defending and protecting rights and freedoms with regard to the relationship between users and the regional and council administration.

Other functions include "designing and implementing measures to prevent and combat direct or indirect discrimination that may affect users of regional or council services; ensuring that persons serving in the regional or council administration comply with their ethical obligations; and conducting any investigation on the functioning of regional and council public services".

A complaint, as per the law, may be submitted to the Public Independent Conciliator by any natural or legal person who considers that his/her rights and freedoms have been infringed by the functioning of the regional or council administration or regional or council public institutions.

A complaint may also be submitted to the Public Independent Conciliator by any person who considers himself/herself to be a victim of direct or indirect discrimination prohibited by law or by an international commitment duly ratified or approved by Cameroon". 

When such a dispute is sent to the Independent Conciliator, he/she shall have the power to make recommendations with a view to ensuring respect for the rights and freedoms of the aggrieved party and settling the dispute submitted to him or preventing it from recurring.

"Where the recommendation is not implemented, the Public Independent Conciliator may order the regional or council administration concerned to take the necessary steps within a specific period. Where his/her injunction is not heeded, the Public Independent Conciliator shall prepare a special report which shall be communicated to the defendant and the representative of the State in the local authority concerned. The report and the respondent's response, as appropriate, may be published," the law specifies. 

A Conciliator is one of the key components of the Social Status applicable only to the two Anglophone Regions. The office is a kind of Ombudsman, but as seen from the Kumba experience, it is more of window dressing. It is like a bulldog without teeth.

The report of the South West Conciliator for last year is said to have pointed out that “relations between the Kumba City Council, service users and inhabitants were perceived to be unhealthy, characterised by recriminations and expressions of disappointment from a majority of the local population over what they consider as the non-delivery of various important services”.

One of the senior councillors, Atungu Henry Tabot, described the Public Independent Conciliator as being a politician, instead of playing the role of an Ombudsman. 

“Everybody in Kumba is appreciating the work of the City Mayor. I am surprised that the Independent Conciliator is saying the City Mayor is not a man of the people,” he said in an interview.

While condemning the report of the Conciliator, Atungu called on Doubting Thomases to visit Kumba and see for themselves the series of development projects that have been engaged by the City Mayor to the benefit of the population.

The Guardian Post holds no brief for the Conciliator. What is of public interest is that a Conciliator by appointment is supposed to be apolitical, of mettle and probity and concerned not on how many projects a council executes, but the transparency involved in the execution of such projects. 

For example, there have been horrible cases in the South West Region, where reports indicate that a mayor used an old container usually sold for some 400,000 for a "health post" and costed it at some seven million FCFA or traveling with his wife on unofficial trip abroad while the council picks up the bill.

When such complaints are sent to the Conciliator, all he/she can do is put it in his report as the office lacks the authority to prosecute those whose visible malfeasance in council management violates the rights of the constituents to hold mayors accountable.

The Anglophone conflict has turned some mayors in the two restive Regions into Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs. 

Paradoxically, they continue to run the councils in unorthodox manner which The Guardian Post understands, has compelled many constituents to petition the offices of the Conciliators.

But because they cannot prosecute even in cases of incontrovertible proof of malpractices, the Conciliators often come under vitriolic criticisms like it happened in Kumba last week.

If the office must play its vital role as an Ombudsman, it should be given more powers to arrest and prosecute those suspected to have embezzled or misappropriate council funds under the aegis of naming executed projects, some of which are often awarded in questionable manner.