Mayors, gov't delegate tasked to rehabilitate roads

Mayors of Kumba and the Government Delegate to the Kumba City Council, Victor Ngoh Nkelle, have been ordered to focus on bad roads and streets in the metropolis that have slowed down the activities of the population.

The order was sounded by the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO for Meme, David Koulbout Aman, on Thursday, July 24, while chairing an extra ordinary Council Session to amend the budget of the Kumba City Council and to validate the report of a commission set up to take stock of shops in the Kumba main market.

Speaking at the session, the SDO declared that, there has been a lot of out cry form the population of Kumba concerning the dilapidated and near impassable roads and streets in some neighbourhoods.

He challenged the mayors and the city boss to start work on these areas in the shortest time possible, to allow the people move freely.

Despite admitting that sometimes there are challenging situations in councils, Koulbout remarked that, when the speculated FCFA 500 million supplementary budgets for Kumba is made available, priority should be given to the roads.

The administrator cited locations such as the Sata Street, passing through the Meme High Court area that is punctuated, with multiple potholes and blocked gutters.

Commission Of Inquiry On Main Market After validating the report on the number of stores in the market, the SDO again ordered the putting in place of another committee to examine financial incoherence in the Chinese Section of the Kumba main market.

The decision came on the spur of a request from the infrastructural committee that, the authorities should examine the area and some missing millions be redirected into the councils' treasury.

Councillor Rufus Oum Bigda who raised the worry in his comments during the deliberations, put the money concerned at FCFA 122million, but when quizzed to explain the issue, he declined commenting further.

Another commission set up by the SDO during the session was tasked to find out the rift between Kumba II Council and the City Council over the Fiango Market.

While the City Council claims to progress with a Build Operate and Transfer, BOT, mechanism on a once refuse pruned area, the Kumba II Council says it wants to erect make-shift sheds and collect fares. This, according to the Government Delegate, is not possible because his institution spent FCFA 30 million to get rid of the dirt in the market.

The Sub divisional Councils are expected to benefit FCFA 15million each from the FCFA 500million supplementary money from the State through the City Council subventions.