(EcoFinances) – A total of 252.5 billion FCFA will be distributed to decentralized institutions (Municipal councils, City councils, Regional councils) this year. The President of the Republic, Paul Biya, has just set out the breakdown in a decree signed on September 06, 2023. Of this important envelope, the sum of 137.2 billion FCFA will be allocated to operations, while 115.3 billion FCFA will go to investment.
« The resources allocated to the general Decentralization endowment for the 2023 fiscal year, amounting to two hundred and fifty-two billion five hundred and sixty-eight million nine hundred and thirty-six thousand (252,568,936,000) FCFA in accordance with the forecasts of the 2023 Finance Act, are distributed as follows: one hundred and thirty-seven billion two hundred and forty million six hundred and thirty-eight thousand (137,240,638,000) FCFA for operations; and one hundred and fifteen billion three hundred and twenty-eight million three hundred thousand (115,328,300,000) FCFA for investment », states Article 1 of the Presidential Decree of September 06, 2023.
30 billion FCFA allocated to the Regions
With particular reference to the general endowment of 137.2 billion FCFA earmarked for operations, it is worth noting that 30 billion FCFA will end up in the hands of the Regions, while 05 billion FCFA will be used for other purposes. On this last point, the decree signed by the Head of State states that the 05 billion FCFA will be used to pay the salaries of municipal executives (2.5 billion FCFA), the remuneration of members of the Regional Councils (350 million FCFA), and the operation of the National Decentralization Council, etc…
As for the investment allocation, the President of the Republic recalls in his decree of September 06 that it constitutes all the public investment resources transferred to the councils. He also reminds us that the latter is presented in the appendix to the 2023 Finance Act.
Unsurprisingly, the Head of State has set safeguards. He enjoins beneficiaries to submit to the Prime Minister, Head of Government, an activity report together with a copy of the employment account corresponding to the amounts received. This must be done no later than January 31, 2024.
The presidential decree fixing the distribution of the general Decentralization allocation for the 2023 financial year comes at a time when municipal executives are complaining not only about delays in the payment of their remuneration, but also and above all about the low amounts allocated, for some time now, to their various municipalities.
