North West PIC x-rays 2024 annual activity report
By Wilson Musa
After submitting the report to the president of the Republic on February 7, and copies of the report forwarded to the representative of the state and the president of the North West Regional executive council within legal limits, the Public Independent Conciliator for the North West made public the report on February 28, in a press conference.
With the principal mission of amicably settling of disputes between users of the regional and council administration, defending and protecting the rights and freedoms with regards to the relationship between citizens and councils, fighting discrimination against users of council services and monitoring of functional regional and council public services and conducting investigative report on issues of abuse, violence and mal administration, the office of The Public Independent Conciliator for the North West has x-rayed the 2024 balance sheet of the performance report of regional and local council services in the North West Region with stakes on the free issuances of civil status documents, condemned on the attack of municipal authorities as well report cards of various councils performance.
After a successful campaign to promote citizens participation in local development, the Public Independent Conciliator for the North West surveyed the region which was examined under the accessibility of mayors and council premises, consultation and participation of the population in Decision making, creation of neighbourhood and village committees, citizen’s involvement in the identification of council projects amongst others, the population of the 35 councils that make up the North West, used questionnaires to assess the performance of the various councils with a total of 5,250 questionnaires administered across the region with 150 per council area.
One of the key activities of The Public Independent Conciliator for the North West was the free issuances of civil status documents and from the survey carried out, “50 percent of respondents across all councils agreed that councils still collected money from citizens for the establishment of birth and marriage certificates as well as death certificates” the PIC for the North West, Simon Tamfu Fai stressed on the fact that this percentage entails that there is still work to be done in this regard and encouraged all citizens to not to give this illegal conduct. He, however, praised and encouraged some councils such as Bamenda 1, Andek, Nkum and Batibo for the significant drop in the collection of money for these documents.
Regarding neighbourhood/village committees, the survey revealed a low perception of 20.85% affirming while a whopping 76.58% responded negatively. The equally stressed on this narrative to be changed as it is a catalyst for development since they will be proposed, participate and
ensure the sustainability of projects in the community.
The attacks on council authorities such as the gruesome murder of the Second Deputy Mayor of Bamenda II, Madam Joko Freda, the killing of the second Deputy Mayor of Elak, Bongnjioh Quinta, the second Deputy Mayor of Babessi, Nkwatoh Solomon was also killed as well as the killing of Dr Ngong Innocent of Belo was highly condemned by the PIC.
Insecurity, persistent late disbursement of subvention, lackluster collaboration of council authorities in the treatment of complaints, absence of a local public service code to guide recruitment, classification, renumeration and and treatment of workers were highlighted in the report as major difficulties hindering the effective functioning of regional, local and decentralized entities as well as the office of The Public Independent Conciliator.
