Mr. Bona Ebengué, SDO for Fako, addressing Senior Councillors

The session proper commenced when the Administrative Officer made his entry to the hall at 12:50 p.m. The Government Delegate called the session to order and asked the Secretary General, Mr. Charles N. Arrey, to conduct a roll call. Only one ex-officio member, who later arrived, was not on seat.

The Government Delegate, in his address, presented the 2012 draft budget balanced in revenue and expenditure at 4,500,000 billion CFA F. This budget, which has noticed an increase of 500,000 million CFA F compared to the 2011 budget, is a very ambitious projection determined to accompany the Head of State of Cameroon in his major accomplishments programme from 2012. The Council has earmarked the following revenue sources for the year 2012:proceeds from tax revenue, special council surtax and taxes, additional council taxes, proceeds from the management of land and services, financial income, other miscellaneous gains and recover its debts from SONARA. The sum of 1.8 billion CFA F, representing 40% of the budget has been allocated for investments. From this amount the council will acquire land at Mile Two to construct the Technical Services and Urban Development Department, acquire tangible assets, maintain and construct roads, markets, purchase equipment etc.

On the other hand the sum of 2.7 billion, representing the remaining 60% of the budget shall cater for recurrent expenditure which include goods and services consumed, transportation consumption, other services consumed, staff costs, taxes and dues, financial costs etc.. He called on all stakeholders to play their role for the realisation of this ambitious project.

The delegate also used this opportunity to highlight the problem of fire outbreaks, rampant in the municipality. He called on the Senior Councillors to deliberate ands authorise him to receive a fire-fighting truck from the city of Colmar in France. This truck will no doubt be used to combat fire outbreaks whenever they occur. He ended his discourse by wishing all present a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year 2012.

After the delegate's speech, two presentations were made Mr. Casimir Lyonga, Director of Technical Services and Urban Development of LCC. The first presentation dwelled on tourism cooperation ties with Colmar, a French city, on the prevention of floods in the Limbe Municipality, conducted by two students on internship. The second presentation updated the Senior Councillors on the state of the Limbe West Bank Maritime Project. Details of this ambitious project were made available to the august assembly, which when realised shall greatly beautify the City of Limbe and give it an enviable position amongst other cities.

Reacting to the Delegate's speech earlier on, the Administrative officer for Fako Division, praised the GD for keeping the flag of Limbe up and called on the LCC to provide quality water to the public. He also called on the establishment to sustainably manage the recently acquired road equipment. To the Senior Councillors, he praised them for their spirit of understanding and called on them to extend this spirit to their various sub divisional councils. Lastly, he called on them to vote a realistic 2012 budget for the LCC.

One issue that was the subject of a lot of debate is the deliberation on night vigils with corpses. At the end the Senior Councillors resolved that from the 1 March 2012, wake-keeping with corpses shall be banned throughout the Limbe municipality. All the inhabitants of this seaside resort city shall respect this injunction order or be subjected to a fine of one million francs payable to the Limbe City Council. Corpses shall not be allowed to enter the municipality after 4 p.m. The sensitisation period is between now and the 1 of March 2012. Twelve Other deliberations were adopted by the Senior Councillors whose mandate will end in the month of June 2012.

In the GD's closing remarks, he thanked the Senior Councillors for adopting the budget and wished to see them back after the mid year elections of 2012. He affirmed that it was thanks to their cooperation that all projects realised in the municipality took place. He also called on them to refrain from any form of gossip, which will only destroy their good deeds.

The session rose at 7:30 p.m.

A cross section of some dignatries during the budgetary session