Press Release Following The Cabinet Meeting Of Thursday, 30 January 2014
His Excellency Philemon YANG, Prime Minister, Head of Government, presided over an important Cabinet Meeting at 11 am on Thursday 30 January 2014 in the Prime Minister’s Office. The meeting was attended by the Vice Prime Minister, Ministers of State, Ministers, Ministers Delegate and Secretaries of State.
The agenda focused on two items, namely: 1. A statement of the
Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization on “ the
assessment of the decentralization process and the transfer of resources
to the councils” ; 2. A presentation by the Minister of Public Works on
“the rehabilitation and reinforcement of the MATGENIE equipment pool.”
The Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization started
his presentation by succinctly recalling the legal and institutional
framework governing the decentralization process, that is: Law No.
2004/016 of 22 July 2004 on the decentralization guideline; Law No.
2004/017 of 22 July 2004 to lay down the rules governing Councils; Law
No. 2004/018 of 22 July 2004 to lay down the rules governing Regions.
The implementation of this process continued in 2009 with the enactment
of the law on the finance system of local authorities and the law on
local tax revenue. He added that this process was supplemented by the
law of 19 April 2012 on the Electoral Code. This Code contains
provisions on the election of Municipal Councilors, Regional Councilors
and Senators. Moreover, he laid emphasis on the institutional mechanism
for the monitoring of decentralization, established in 2009, namely: the
National Decentralization Board and the Inter-Ministerial Committee for
Local Services, and more recently, the SENATE following the 14 April
2013 senatorial elections. On the issue of the transfer of power and
resources to local authorities, he noted the effective transfer of
several powers hitherto exercised by the central administration
especially in the construction and maintenance of classrooms; promotion
of livestock breeding and fish production activities; helping the needy,
providing drinking water in areas not covered by the public network;
constructing and maintaining unclassified rural roads; constructing and
maintaining health care centers; managing and maintaining centres for
women empowerment and the family; creating and maintaining earth roads
in urban areas, supporting income and employment generating
micro-projects ; etc. In addition, according to the transfer schedule
set by the National Decentralization Board, there shall be a complete
transfer of powers to Councils and Urban Communities before 2015 in
keeping with the law to lay down the rules governing Councils. With
regards to the problems related to the implementation of the process,
the Minister pointed out that they are of two types, namely: the
insufficiency of financial resources transferred and the low capacity of
Councils and Urban Communities to manage the powers and the resources
allocated them. There is also the absence of a global strategy to define
the set objectives, and the schedules and timetables, actors and
implementation indicators, as well as the methods for the follow up and
evaluation of the process. As a way forward, he recommended the
development of a national decentralisation strategy that will
specifically enable a better definition of the volumes of resources
transferred to councils as well as the suitable conditions for the
transfer and management of these resources. In the same light, he added
that emphasis should be laid on the training and capacity building of
the different actors involved, by organising training sessions for
municipal councilors and reforming the Local Government Training Centre.
He ended by recommending that the laws on decentralisation be amended
to tailor them to local realities. After the discussions following this
presentation, the Prime Minister gave specific instructions, which aim,
on the one hand, at increasing and making the resources transferred to
Councils readily available, and on the other hand, developing a national
strategy on decentralisation. The meeting continued with the
statement of the Minister of Public Works on the rehabilitation and
reinforcement of the MATGENIE equipment pool. The presentation revealed
that, due to the economic crises our country faced, a majority of the
machines and equipment of this company have become obsolete. In view of
the increasing need for maintenance and construction of road
infrastructure, whose network of about 100 000Km is only maintained on a
paltry portion of 20 000Km, the needs of the State and its other
institutions in civil engineering equipment were estimated at about 1
500 machines, in order to reverse the trends within the context of
decentralisation. Government’s strategy in this domain has consisted in
rehabilitating the existing residual park with a total of about 89
rolling stocks for a total cost of CFA 1 278 billion with the signing in
2008 of a minimum objective contract, followed in 2012 by the acquiring
of a batch of 120 new machines. At the institutional level, he
emphasized that the basic instrument of MATGENIE was revised and set to
conform to the provisions of Law No. 99/016 of 22 December 1999 on the
general status of public institutions and State-owned corporations in
order to optimise its functioning. Concerning the building of the
intervention capacity of this company, he underscored that the acquiring
of 1 607 machines, for a total cost of CFA 112 billion, was planned and
spread over the 2011 - 2015 period. The convention to pool the
equipment at MATGENIE was signed on 8 January 2014. Concluding his
statement, the Minister of Public Works insisted on the need to speed up
the implementation of preparatory measures for the acquisition of these
equipment, by training drivers and mechanics, as well as refurbishing
the workshops. He also emphasised that after-sale services,
technological choices and the cost of the equipment, should first of all
be tested, in a bid to make the process lasting. At the end of this
presentation, the Head of Government enjoined the Minister of Public
Works to diligently carry out the process to acquire new equipment for
MATGENIE and to finalise feasibility studies for the construction of a
civil engineering equipment assembly industry in Cameroon. The meeting
was adjourned at 1.05pm. ./- Yaounde, Louis Paul Motaze
Secretary- General, Prime Minister’s Office
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