The Mayor of the Limbe I Council, Rodanny Mbua Mokako, and that of the Limbe II Council, Duncan Molindo, have told Fako SDO that the 2015 was a difficult year due to taxes and debts.

The Mayors were addressing themselves to the First Assistant SDO of Fako, Vincent Nafongo Lokombe, who was in the two councils, respectively on May 6 at the Limbe I and on May 7 at the Limbe II, to preside at the examination of the accounts of the two councils for the 2015 fiscal year. Mayor Rodanny said his Council collected a total sum of FCFA 413.170 million out of FCFA 632 million that was budgeted. Of the above amount, he said, a total of FCFA 410.829 million was spent for both recurrent and investment purposes.

But the Mayor lamented because, of the FCFA 413.1 million collected, a whooping sum of some FCFA 100 million was spent just to pay taxes. He said it does not augur well for a council that has a lot of commitments to provide for its population to be paying such amounts to taxation when there are projects that they could have carried out for the benefit of the population.

As to why such a huge amount just for taxes, Mayor Rodanny said councils “find themselves in a situation where once they don’t pay their dues on time, they are bound to pay later but with very heavy fines and these are the fines that” guzzled up lots of the councils’ money that could have been invested for projects.

The Mayor urged the SDO to try and assist the councils such that taxation can exonerate them from such crippling fines. Meantime, Mayor Duncan of the Limbe II Council said, out of FCFA 472.754 million budgeted for 2015, FCFA 339.440 was successfully collected recording a 69.68 percent recovery rate.

Duncan, nevertheless, told the SDO that they would have done even better, were it not for the fact that so many establishments still owe his Council. He disclosed that the Shipyard Project at Mokundange owed the Council unpaid taxes up to the tune of FCFA 24 million, whereas the Council Support Fund, FEICOM, as well as the Limbe City Council, still owe them some subvention money for 2015.

But the SDO, after a careful scrutiny of the draft 2015 recovery and expenditure accounts as presented, said there were still a lot of areas in the document which were not clear enough to give him a concise understanding of the figures. Though he appreciated the Mayor of Limbe II for what his Council collected, he said: “You need to reinforce measures for the collection of revenue at the Batoke Motor Park and the Karata Quarry, » the SDO said.

Nafongo urged the Mayor to ensure that all projects earmarked for 2015 by his Council be completed. He cited the case of a Council Clinic which the Mayor admitted was still at the foundation level. The SDO also urged the Mayor to pay all social insurance contributions that his Council collected on behalf of the workers. He remarked that, out of some FCFA 8 million that was budgeted, just one third of the above sum was paid in.

The SDO called on the two Mayors to intensify efforts at cleaning the city of Limbe as one of the host venues for the November African Women Football Cup of Nations.