Cameroon/ Decentralization: how the State intends to ensure equity in the transfer of resources to the CTDs from 2024 onwards

In his circular relating to the preparation of the budget for the 2024 financial year, the Head of State readjusts the instructions given to the government a year earlier so that the development projects of the CTDs are realized.

The full and balanced transfer of financial resources to Cameroon's 10 regions, 14 urban communities and 360 communes is still not effective throughout the country.four years after the promulgation of the General Code of Decentralized Territorial Communities (Code général Collectivités territoriales décentralisées - CTD). This observation was made by the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, who, in his circular on the preparation of the State Budget for fiscal yearfiscal year 2024, once again reassures that efforts will be made to reduce disparities in the allocation of funds transferred to the CTDs.

By way of innovation, the Head of State announces in his circular signed on August 30, 2023, that "specific conferences will be jointly organized by the ministries in charge of finance, public investment and decentralization.investissement public et de la Décentralisation en vue de l'examen de l'équité dans la répartition des ressources allouées par les administrations concernées aux CTD ", it reads. In addition to this measure, we learn that "the sectoral ministries in charge of investment, financing and decentralization will have to evaluate the exercise of transferred powers".

In contrast to 2023, which announced the programming of the resources required for "medium-term" financing, the Budget 2024 circular instructs administrations to "program the resources required for the effective financing of the transfer".for the effective financing of the exercise of powers transferred to the communes and regions, those for capital expenditure and those for current expenditure, and to ensure that they are distributed fairly".

All that remains is for these prescriptions to be implemented, so that all decentralized local authorities benefit from the financial support they are entitled to for local development.

A few exceptions

According to our information, the Ministry of Public Works (Mintp) and the Ministry of Decentralization and Local Development (Minddevel) are practically the only two ministries to transfer funds to the CTDs in full and on an equitable basis. Mintp allocates 27 million CFA francs to communes each year for road maintenance work, although beneficiaries are calling for this amount to be increased. As for Mindevel, it allocates 100 million Fcfa annually to communes, 285 million Fcfa to urban communities and 3 billion Fcfa to the regions. It should be noted that certain ministries, such as the Ministry of Basic Education (Minedub) and the Ministry of Secondary Education (Minesec), have to intervene according to needs on the ground, notably the construction of basic infrastructure (classrooms, etc.).

However, other key administrations are slow to come forward in certain areas. "Now we need the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (Minhdu) to do something, because if they don't give us anything, what are we going to do? What are we going to do with the town halls? How are we going to treat the gardens? How are we going to modernize the city?" asks Jean Mairie Dimbele Sodea, Mayor of Bertoua, in an interview with EcoMatin.

This embarrassment on the part of the municipal magistrate of the eastern regional capital is in line with a recent Minddevel report, according to which, of the 19 administrations having transferredresources under the Public Investment Budget (BIP) between 2019-2022, the share of 09 ministries is less than 1% and together represents 4.32%. On the other hand, Minddevel came out ahead with 37%, followed by Minedub (13.31%) and Mintp (12.66%). It should be remembered that the budget allocated to the general decentralization endowment for the 2023 financial year amounts to 252.568 billion CFA francs, i.e. 137.240 billion CFA francs for operations and 115.328 billion CFA francs for investment.

Source: ecomatin.net/