FCFA 500 million scam rocks Kumba City Council

The FCFA 500 million budget recently adopted by grand Councillors to the Kumba City Council, last July 24 as additional funds from the central Government in Yaounde is reportedly turning out to be a scam.

The Post has learnt that the City Council has staked some FCFA 25 million in pursuit of the FCFA 500 million.

Emerging information has revealed that officials of the City Council are in a tight spot on whether to dole out an extra FCFA 2 million for middlemen in Yaounde to facilitate the transfer of the money or cause those who collected FCFA 25 million to cough out the money.

Our source that asked not to be named disclosed that, the Council is counting on the connections of Elardson Fotabong, Treasurer of the Alou Council in Lebialem Division and one other Mayor in the South Region to get the money.

Mayors of the three subdivisional Councils, who were entitled to get FCFA 15 million each out of the supposed FCFA 500 million, are said to be in a fix as the money is not forthcoming. The municipal authorities are reported to have been cajoled to exercise patience following an in-door meeting they had with the Council authorities.

Commenting on the allegations on August 25, the Municipal Treasurer of the Kumba City Council, Henry Andong, described the information as false. Andong, however, admitted that the FCFA500 million which the Council was expecting is not yet available.

According to Andong, at the level of the City Council Treasury, no such withdrawal of CFA 25 million has been made to use to pursue the FCFA 500 million from the central Government.

Concerning the involvement of the Alou Council Treasurer and a Mayor in the South in the drive to get the money, the Andong stated that there is no link between the City Council and the aforementioned Alou Council. He, however, acknowledged being privy to information that Elardson Fotabong of Alou Council could be of help in such circumstances.

The money, Andong explained is expected to come from the ‘Direction de grandes entreprises’ of the Taxation Department in the Ministry of Finance and partly from the additional Council taxes fund, alongside other local forms of revenue collection.

Attempts to get the Government Delegate to the Kumba City Council, Victor Nkelle Ngoh, to comment on the issue were fruitless.

SDO Expresses Fear Meme Senior Divisional Officer, David Koulbout Aman, recently expressed fears of a possible scam while overseeing a similar extraordinary Council session at the Kumba II Council. The supervisory authority told the Mayor, Martin Forcha, that it is unfounded for councillors to adopt an extra FCFA 76.5 million budget without being sure that, it is attainable. In the same Council session, the SDO told the Mayor that the Kumba City Council had received its own FCFA 500 million additional budget in cash, before summoning the councillors to adopt it.

Aman, during the same session, told Mayor Forcha that, within two days, bank transactions effected at the level of BICEC Kumba will materialise at the level of the subdivisional Councils. The explanation came as the Mayor argued that no such payments from the City Council had been made into the Councils’ account.