PIC Team on Bench Marking at Koutaba Council on organization and Council functioning

On Law no.2019/024 of 24^th December 2019 instituting the general code of regional and local authorities and Decree No.2020/773 of December 2020 laying down the conditions for the discharge of the duties of the Public Independent Conciliator for the North West and South West Regions, hold that the Public Independent Conciliator have among other functions the following mission;

1. Examining and amicably settling disputes between users and regional and council administrations;
2. Defending and protecting rights and freedoms in the relationship between citizens and the region or the Council in the Region;
3. Designing and implementing measures to prevent and combat any direct or indirect discrimination against users of regional or council services;
4. Ensuring that persons serving in the regional and council administration fulfill their ethical obligations;
5. Conducting any investigation on the functioning of regional and council services at the request of 5 (five) regional councilors;
6. Preparing an annual report on the state of relations between citizens and regional and or council services;
7. Improving the quality of regional and Council services by proposing statutory and regulatory amendments to the president of the republic.

In a bid to comply with its mission, the Office of Public Independent Conciliator engaged in a Bench Marking visit to some Councils out of the North West Region where staff can make a comparative study on what the law stipulates vis-à-vis the practical operationalization of Councils.

The Bench Marking visit authorized by the Public Independent Conciliator had as principal objective to strengthen the capacity of the staff of the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator to understand how council services are offered all in a bid to increase staff performance.

Ngodji Rais, Juli Yauba Bobo, Miss. Wirsungrin Adelaide Fonyuy, Mme Abdu Emmaculate Nayet and Mr. Banji Jowvet embarked on the said mission to the Koutaba Council from the 13^th to the 18^th of May 2024.

The working visit was guided by the following;

• Involvement of the population in the affairs of the council;
• Management of human resources;
• Operation of the vocational education and training services;
• Functioning of the civil and archives services;
• Creation of revenue and resource mobilization;
• Modalities for urban planning and urbanization of the town, including the procedures for issuing building permits and demolition orders;
• Communal infrastructure management;
• Management of municipal projects (design, execution, monitoring and evaluation);

The team held a meeting on the 14^th of May 2024 on how to carry out the benchmarking visit, programmed on the organization and outlined procedures on the various services to visit. Guided by the chief of service for Technical Affairs Mr. Jukoughambe Ousmanou. The following services were outlined to be covered during the visit;

• The Technical Services
• Bureau for town planning and construction
• Water and Energy

The Technical service work in collaboration with;

• office in charge of motorways and road maintenance
• Municipal Police
• Services in charge of Public Contracts
• Services in charge of General Affairs
• Human Resource management
• Legal affair
• Litigation
• Civil Status Department
• Archives
• Social and Cultural Affairs
• Economic and Finance Affairs
• Treasury
• Engagement office
• Office for liquidation of tax and imposition
• Office in charge of collection of taxes
• General Secretariat.

The outline of the program was read out by the Head of the Technical Service Mr. Ousman, followed by the presentation of the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator, its missions and the objectives of the visit. This was done by Executive Officer no. 1 in the name of Mr. Ngodji Rais who was the head of the mission.

The head of the Technical Services of the Koutaba Council presented the various offices under this service and the different functions. They included the office for Town planning, the office in charge of motorways and road maintenance that work in collaboration with other services like hygiene and sanitation, water and energy, and municipal police.

The office in charge of town planning is mandated to ensure conformity with the rules governing town planning, issues building, implantation and demolition permits in line with the established procedures.

It should be noted that a commission is put in place to evaluate a construction site before a building permit is issued. This commission at the level of the council work in synergy with the Divisional Delegation of Town Planning and Urban Development for the Noun Division. The commission is charged with evaluating all applications for building permits and ensures there are in conformity with the rules governing town planning.

After a building permit is issued, the applicant must engage construction within a period of 2 years without which the building permit will expire and will require him to reapply following the same procedure. The team from the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator were made to understand that the council collects 1% of the amount budgeted for the building project.

It should be noted that structural development of the town of Koutaba is based on the Council Development Plan (C.D. P) in collaboration with PNDP and the Ministry of in charge of Town planning.

Meeting with the Office in charge of water and energy

The team on mission were drilled on the various projects relating to water supply in rural areas. The council of Koutaba with the collaboration of the Ministry of Water and Energy, and other NGOs like KOIKA are revisiting all water sources so as to ensure the supply of portable water across the municipality since the population is fast growing.

Koutaba council has water projects that covers the 14 villages which make the municipality. This has helped to reduce illnesses contracted as a result of lack of clean water.

That certain NGOs by pass the council and try to execute projects of water supply to certain communities but these projects are hardly completed since they are often not informed with the realities on the field.

The urban space of Koutaba council is in dying need of water and electricity because at the moment, the council premises suffers from lack of water and electricity supply. The team were told that the Ministry of Water and Energy promised to provide for solar panels to the council.

Meeting with the office in charge of public contracts

The Office of the Public Independent Conciliator were explained the functioning of this office which is having an internal commission charged with public contracts. The commission is headed by a President who is an external member, representative of the Senior Divisional Officer, representative of MINFI, a representative of ARMP, a Secretary appointed by the Mayor and the representative of the Mayor known as the “Maitre D’Ourage”.

The Technical Services do the conception, establish the procedure, fixes the date for the reception of offers and ensures conformity. Once the files have been forwarded to the Regional Agency, the commissions activities end there and “Service du Marche” takes over to ensure execution.

 Meeting with Hygiene and sanitation.

The functions of this office were explained. This included;

• Ensure cleanliness of the municipality especially markets
• Control the hygiene of restaurant owners and food vendors
• Strict control on stray animals.

The office is made of 3 members where two are inactive making it difficult to accomplish the task. There is equally the lack of the means of operation. The council doesn’t provide for the means to realize their objectives.

Meeting with Service in charge of General Affairs

The session with the Chief of Service for General Affairs revealed the various functions of this office amongst which are:

• Human resource department;
• Litigation and legal affairs;
• Civil status department and;

The human resource department is in charge of personnel, recruitment, management, trainings and discipline.

Worthy to note that all 14 villages and communities are represented in the council, making their services very inclusive.

The team were told that the Mayor of Koutaba council ensures that all staff are paid whenever subvention from FEICOM is disbursed. The council is owing staff just the month of April and that there is no probation during recruitment. Staff recruited start working and are paid depending on their qualification. Absence and punctuality depends on salaries. When staff goes for 2 to 3 months without salaries due to the late disbursement of state subventions, they turn not to respect working hours.

Meeting with the Civil Status Department

Koubata council issues Birth, Marriage and Certificate of Death free of charge.

In case of a reconstruction of a certificate due to the loss of the original, the reference will be traced from the counterfoil whereby an attestation of existence of the stump will be established and attached to the counterfoil and used as the birth certificate.

Marriages are celebrated from Mondays to Fridays free of charge but where parties decide to sign a marriage certificate on a Saturday, they will make provision of fuel for the transportation of the officers. The civil status department is having 7 secondary centers in within the municipality.

The team learnt that BUNEC doesn’t give booklets on time and this makes the task a daunting one for the council since the number of births to be declared keep on increasing.

Meeting with the Archivist

In Koutaba council, this office solely keeps civil status booklets. This is done physically in a cupboard. They are classified in order of centers and years.

Meeting with Social Affairs

Created in 2020, this service work in collaboration with the Delegations in charge of Social Affairs, Women’s Empowerment and the Family and it is in charge of helping the vulnerable. It registers cases, receives applications from those soliciting assistance. This service intervenes only where there is necessity. That the lack of a standing budget makes it difficult for the services to be executed.

Meeting with the Economic and Finance Services

The OPIC team met with these services that were made up of the Treasury, the Engagement Service, office for liquidation of tax and imposition, office in charge of tax collection.

The treasury headed by the municipal treasurer who is appointed by the Minister of Finance, ensures legality and is in charge of managing the Council funds. The municipal treasurer in ensures regularity, always find himself in a conflict with the Vote Holder making it very difficult for him to execute his functions as per the law.

NB it is important to say here that following the difficulties encountered with the delays of the Council Additional Tax the Municipal Treasurer has introduce the loan system where the council will borrow from the bank in moments of deficit and reimburse when there is availability of funds.

Meeting with the Engagement Service

The engagement service is in charge of processing every financial engagements of the Council after which the Mayor who is the authorizing officer signs a payment order. The payment order is therefore sent to the Municipal Treasurer who initiates the payments at the Treasury.

Meeting with the Office for liquidation of tax and imposition

The office for tax liquidation and imposition is in charge of establishing a tax base for business men, identifying tax payers and also sanctioning tax invaders. They work in collaboration with the Municipal Treasurer and Tax Collectors.

Meeting with the Tax Collection Department

Koutaba council collects taxes on daily and quarterly bases and that the collection order is signed by the mayor.

There is a weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual balance sheet for the collection process.

The various taxes include;

Reccette fiscal, droite de place, l’impot liberatoire, tax d’embargement and rents from store owners.

 

1. Appraisal

• The workers of the council are very welcoming and willing to share with the OPIC;
• The structure of the Koutaba Council is perceived to be a non-inclusive building;
• Council is very inclusive with staff from all the communities that make up the municipality;
• The good organization and functioning of services with well spelt out job descriptions;
• The workers perceive the mayor as a good leader who sees them as his collaborators and not his employees;

 

      2. Lessons learnt

• The pre meeting held with the council laid the ground for a successful bench marking visit. All council staff were aware of the visit thereby making themselves available since they understood the purpose of the visit.
• The set up in the council is very good as every service is accessible.
• Koutaba Council like other councils faces difficulties in functioning due the late disbursement of state subventions.
• The next benchmarking visits should be well prepared before councils are selected for the visits.
• The government should adopt measures that will enable the Council Additional Tax to be disbursed on time;
• The Mayors who are the vote holders in Council should be Train on the management of public funds and the related principles.

CONCLUSION

The Koutaba Council is an example of a council in a rural area. This council unlike most councils in the North West Region pay their workers regularly. That is once the state subventions are out, the council makes sure all workers are paid the number of months they were owed by the council. Revenue collection is very minimal which cannot sustain and run the internal activities of the council.