Bench Marking visit on the organization and functioning of Councils at Tiko Council

A team  left the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator, North-West Region on a bench marking visit to the Tiko Council.

Background

Tiko Council is one of the sub-divisional councils in Fako Division in the South-West Region of Cameroon headed by Mayor H.R.H Peter IKOME MESOSO. The Tiko Council is a class three council that was reclassified in 2021 from a class two council to a class three council. The council covers ten (10) villages which include: Mutengene, Tiko, Likomba, Miselele, Modeka, Mondoni, Mondoni Native, Misaka, Moquo, and Mongo. The Tiko Council is equally referred to as “The Gateway Municipality”. The population of the Tiko Council greatly depends on agriculture for their livelihood.

The purpose of the field study was to strengthen the capacity of the staff of the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator, North-West Region in carrying out their functions through a better understanding of the practical operation of council services. To understand the functioning of the council, the team visited various services in Tiko Council. They included:

• Human resource;
• Finance service;
• Recovery service;
• Council development service;
• Hygiene/Sanitation service;
• Civil status service;
• Municipal Police service;
• Town Planning service;
• Indigenous Solution Service;

The PIC team was received by the Head of Human Resources Mr. Oscar MUKETE  and were presented the program of work prepared by the council to the team. Mr. Mukete reiterated that the program of work was crafted in response to the specific demands spelled out in the letter addressed to the Council. Upon request by Mr. Mukete, the head of mission Nina AMBUBAN gave a summary of the organization and missions of the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator.  The team began with the first lesson with the General Affairs Service represented by the Secretary-General of the Tiko Council.

At the General affairs service, the team was received by the Secretary-General of Tiko Council, (Madam TATASON) and introduced by a representative of the head of administration. The Secretary-General congratulated the effort of the head of the mission for the constant follow-up with the council to make the visit possible. Equally, the SG applauded this initiative of the Office of the Public Independent Office to foster a better understanding of the functioning of councils by its staff. The SG gave the team an orientation on the organization and functioning of the Tiko Council.

• Tiko Council has two main organs which are the deliberative and executive organs. The deliberative organ being the most important organ is made up of the Mayor, Deputy Mayors, and Councillors while the executive organ is made up of all the services within the council, the Mayor, and Deputy Mayors.
• Also, Tiko council has 41 (forty-one) Councillors and 4 (four) Deputy Mayors.
• The council has financial and administrative autonomy.
• The council gets its income from rents, taxes, and subventions from FEICOM.
• The SG orientates and guides the Mayor to be law-abiding in all council affairs.
• The Council has consultation meetings with the population (town hall meetings) and during such meetings especially during orientation debates the SDOs and DOs are not invited as this scares the population.
• During administrative execution account meetings, the executive organ gives an account to the deliberative organ on their level of execution.
• There are principally five services within the council made up of other sub-services. These five principal services include; General Affair Service, Economic and Finance Service, Technical Service, Municipal Police, and the Treasury.

While in the course of discussion with the Secretary-General, the Mayor came by and welcomed the PIC team to the Tiko Council. He encouraged our efforts and promised that his team was prepared for our visit and would gladly give us every information we would need in the course of the pedagogic exercise

The council development service is headed by Chief Mbollo NDEDI.  He presented his service and shared information on the functioning of his service and his setbacks.

• For the conception of projects, the council creates a Communal Development Plan (CDP) which is a strategic planning document that serves as a project bank for the council. For the council to create its CDP, it carries out three diagnoses which include:

1. Council Institutional Diagnosis. At this stage, an assessment of the council’s needs is made;
2. Village to village Diagnosis. Here, an assessment of the population’s needs is made and their opinions are sampled. Their needs are arranged in order of priority;
3. Urban Space Diagnosis.

After projects have been selected, they are sent for scrutiny to the Budget Orientation Debate. When this is done, the selected projects are sent to the councilors.

• The maturation of council projects consists of various elements

1. Search for the project sites
2. Estimated cost of the projects
3. Architectural plans are drawn
4. And building permits granted

At the end of this, the projects are sent to the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development. The council has 9 (nine) projects set out for the year 2024.

• When the funding for projects is in, there is programming for awards of these projects followed by the awards of projects. This funding comes in the form of credit cards.
• After the maturation and awards of projects comes the execution of projects. The execution of council projects consists of follow-up at various levels carried out by a quarterly follow-up committee, monthly consultation follow-up committee, and divisional follow-up committee at the council.
• At the end of the execution of the project, there is a provisional, technical, and final reception of the project.
• To ensure commitment on the part of contractors, they are required to pay 2% of the actual amount of the contract called a bid bond to the bank.
• The major challenge cited by the head of the service was that the council in practice had no financial autonomy as they depend on ministries for subventions.

At the Human Resource Service, headed by Mr. Oscar MUKETE, gave and overview of the human resources of the council and how they are managed;

• The council has 85 (eighty-five) employees.
• Staff are recruited through three methods which include; contracts, decisions, and secondment. Contract workers will be those employed in categories 7-12 and can be transferred to other places or councils for work. Workers employed on decisions are those employed in categories 1-6 and will work in the councils till they retire

• After every two years, there are advancements. Advancements can be made upon obtaining a higher certificate.
• Workers are entitled to leave and where the leaves are not granted the dues on the leaves are paid.
• Staff are entitled to training.
• In situations of recalcitrant staff, they are called to order by the Human Resource Officer and Staff Delegates. In case of non-adherence to the order, the staff is warned and eventually served a query.
• The council has internal rules and regulations that direct and guide the activities of the staff.

Worth noting is the fact that Tiko Council is currently using the 2014 salary scale to set the salary of its workers.

The indigenous solution service headed by Mr. Julius SONE, is new in the council and has direct contact with the population in crafting out local solutions to the community’s problems.

• In 2021, there was the creation of development committees in the various communities within the Tiko Council which was later transformed into village and neighborhood committees.
• The municipality was carved out into 17 (seventeen) zones and was adopted in a council session. With the final decision from the council deliberations, elections were conducted in these zones to elect the executives of these village and neighborhood committees.
• These neighborhood and village committees give information on the realities of the communities through what is known as Citizen Consultation. These consultations help in highlighting projects based on the needs of the population. These neighborhood and village committees issue reports to the council which is used in the Budgetary Orientation Debate.
• These zonal committees meet monthly and report to the focal person at the council quarterly.
• They are given 50,000 (fifty thousand) FCFA quarterly to support them carry out their activities.
• A major challenge faced by this service is insecurity caused by the ongoing crisis in the region and no provision by the law for the remuneration of these village and neighborhood committees.

After the interesting exchange with the indigenous solution service, the team’s next stop was with the Civil Status service, headed by Mrs. Anna ENANGA, is made up of five persons and is gender sensitive with four women and a man.

• They establish birth, marriage, and death certificates.
• When it comes to death certificates, they are established free of charge and handed to the user immediately.
• BUNEC offers booklets for these documents to the council free of charge and birth certificates are issued free of charge.
• Birth declarations are brought to the council by hospital agents or by the parents of the child but they must be issued by the hospital.
• Where births are not carried out in hospitals, Chiefs or quarterheads can declare the birth of a child using the harmonized form produced by the council. This procedure applies to death certificates.
• The council gets approximately one hundred applications for birth certificates in a month.
• The civil status registers are closed at the end of every year by the State Counsel. A copy of the registers after being closed is left with the State Counsel, another copy goes back to the BUNEC office and the last copy remains with the civil status registrar at the council.
• The Tiko Council in collaboration with MINEDUB and the High Court of Tiko issued court declarations and birth certificates to some children in the Tiko Municipality in the first part of 2024.
• On 15 May 2024, a mass marriage ceremony was organized by the Tiko Council for over 50 (fifty) couples in the Tiko municipality.
• The civil status registrars at the council have undergone training with GIZ concerning the issuance of civil status registrars.
• The civil status registrars at the council were appointed by the Mayor.
• The major challenge faced by the service is the unavailability of civil status registrars especially for birth certificates and there are delays in signature by the President of the court when obtaining declaratory judgments

The hygiene and sanitation service headed by Mrs. MBONGO Magdalene and is made up of seven males and two females.

• Community work at the Tiko municipality is carried out every first and last Wednesday of every month by the council workers and the population to keep the municipality clean.
• The service works with all villages and sub-villages that make up the Tiko municipality.
• The council controls and manages the hygienic and sanitary aspects of the municipality. To realize this, the service generated a program that guides its work with the community. This service checks the sanitary aspects of homes, schools, hospitals, and markets. They carry out door-to-door control.
• As a result of the insecurity, the council no longer does recycling of waste but only collects and disposes of the waste. The council currently has three dumping sites for its waste disposal.
• Tiko municipality has six markets and the waste from these markets is disposed of by the council.
• The service equally carries out food control in restaurants so as to check the hygienic condition in which food is prepared and served to consumers.
• The service works with quarterheads and councilors who provide information to the council on the daily hygiene of the communities.
• Equally, sensitization is carried out by the service to educate the population on the importance of drinking portable water and a clean environment.
• To ease the work of the council and the sanitation service, some communities have created dumping sites for their waste and manage these sites themselves.
• Currently, the council has five tractor tails kept at the markets every Friday to carry waste for disposal.
• In situations of abandoned and unidentified corpses in the municipality, the service takes charge of disposing of these corpses.
• The major challenge faced by this service is changing the mentality of the population toward the hygiene and sanitation of their communities.

 

The socio -cultural service is headed by Mr. Douala DIPITA and works with social affairs, cultural affairs, sports affairs, and disabled persons.

• In social affairs, when complaints come in and demand assistance, the service carries out its investigation before granting assistance or resolving these complaints.
• The council works with the Regional Delegation of Social Affairs from whom they get credit cards to address social issues and offer assistance to the population.
• When demands for assistance come to the council, the service creates committees within the council to select more critical cases from the cases presented by the Regional Delegation of Social Affairs before assistance is granted.
• However, these credit cards are limited thus, limiting the capacity of the service to offer assistance to many people within the municipality. Worth noting is the fact that there is equally a budget line for assistance in the council’s budget which permits this service to accommodate more cases of assistance.
• The service gets a parquet minimum from the Ministry of Basic Education to offer assistance to primary schools. The service works with the Regional Delegation of Basic Education to provide the needs of primary schools within the municipality.
• In addition, the service works with the Regional Delegation of Women Empowerment and the Family to empower young girls and women within the municipality through training workshops and granting assistance. During the celebration of World Family Day in May 2024, the council collaborated with the Regional Delegation to organize mass marriages for the population. Also, during International Widows Day, the service equally partnered with the delegation in this celebration.
• The service equally manages gender-based violence-related issues.
• In the domain of sport, the service organizes holiday competitions like inter-quarter football challenges. Inter-service competitions are equally organized. The council through this service provides support to the local football teams in the municipality. Although the council offers support to these football teams, the support is limited due to limited funds.
• Another challenge faced by this service is the fact that the service is managed by one person which makes work very burdensome.
• The council has been more involved in cultural affairs with the organization of “Tiko Council Sports and Cultural Festivals” for the past three years. The festival consisted of activities such as marathons, football competitions, and handicrafts. The major challenge faced in the organization of this festival is the lack of finance and poor management of time (late preparations).
• They work with the Regional Delegation of Small and Midium Size Enterprises to work with the craft people.

 

The Municipal Police service of Tiko Council is the security of the council which takes care of council property and assists the police in protecting citizens. This service is headed by Mr. TEBOH George.

• This service is made up of 15 staff and intervenes in all other services of the council.
• The Municipal Police control traffic, and cross-school pupils, secure the assets of the council, and reinforce the building permit team and the recovery team of the Tiko Council.
• The population and the police sometimes call on the municipal police for intervention in incidents of public disorder.
• There are recalcitrant municipal police personnel in the council stemming from their lack of training. However, following the recent Ministerial Decree, the municipal police staff of the council will be trained in NASLA and the cost will be borne by the council.
• Bike riders within the municipality make the work of municipal police quite difficult because they do not respect the instructions given by the municipal police. This creates a confrontation between the municipal police and bike riders.
• Wrongful acts committed by the personnel of the municipal police service are sanctioned and upon complaints from the population, investigations are conducted before further measures are taken.

 

The Town planning service is headed by Mr. Jean ESUNGE and has three main functions which include, town planning, urban planning, and temporal occupation within the Tiko municipality.

• This service is in charge of issuing building permits and demolition permits.
• The requirements for obtaining a building permit include:

1. Present the plan of the building on an A3 paper in five copies,
2. After the presentation of the plan to the council, a commission is created to evaluate the total cost of the building from which 1% of the sum of the building will be paid to the council by the user requesting for a building permit. This commission is made up of the Head of the town planning service at the council, the Divisional Delegate of Public Works or a representative, the Secretary of the commission, the Divisional Delegate for Urban Development and Town Planning, the Mayor of the council or a representative of the Mayor, the Secretary-General of the Council, Representatives of the engineering corps, representatives of the architectural corps and the Divisional Delegate of Environment.
3. The user must present a site plan which will mention the location and dimension of the building and a building permit site plan which will indicate how the building is placed within the land.
4. The user must produce and present a receipt of the land tax paid at the treasury and a deed of conveyance.

• For there to be a demolition, there must be a demolition order from the Senior Divisional Officer and the Mayor before the demolition can take place.
• The major challenge faced by this service is the population’s refusal to pay taxes.

 

This Finance service headed by Mrs. DOMSHA Brenda supports the conception, preparation, and execution of the council budget. The service has various functions:

• Issuance of collection for the payment of taxes and preparation of vouchers for services rendered.
• Education of taxpayers on their obligations.
• Help to promote compliance and timeliness.
• We keep a record of the taxpayers of the council.
• Support the preparation of the Council Administration account.
• Keep track of council financial management in a special software SIM_BA.
• Assist in the recovery of council services.
• Follow up payment of third parties example CNPS.
• The council has two sources of council revenue which include:

1. Direct Sources: taxes which include market tolls, park fees, mortuary fees, global tax, and building permits.
2. Indirect sources: credit cards and subventions.

• The direct taxes of the Tiko Council include patented, liquor licenses, discharge tax or global tax, and gambling taxes. These are taxes assessed by the Taxation Office and collected by the council.
• The indirect taxes which are taxes assessed and collected by the council include building permits, hygiene and sanitation tax.

The various observations were made during the pedagogic exercise:

• Staff at the Council were cordial and hospitable.
• The council practices inclusiveness and gender balance in its recruitment

RECOMMENDATIONS

• The PIC should propose legislation to amend the 2019 law to give more powers to the Mayors who are the people’s choice.
• The need for a strong deliberative organ free from the supervisory authorities.
• Encourage the active participation of Councillors in council affairs.
• Encourage the active participation of the population in the council affairs.