Abstract

Recent studies have found that resource-rich low-income countries are better off investing their resource revenues domestically rather than saving them abroad in a sovereign wealth fund (SWF). This work finds an optimal rule-based policy of accumulating public capital and its associated public investment budget in a perfect equilibrium model.

In this research study, the born of contention is; how effective is the implementation of public investment budget to the people of Kumba 1 Sub-Division, what are the challenges faced in the implementation of public investment budget in Kumba 1 Sub-Division and The impact of the public investment budget to the people of Kumba 1 Sub-Division, shows how to implement and realize the public investment budget and well executed so it can benefit the habitants of Kumba 1 Sub-Division.

The aim of this research is to see the effectiveness and successfulness of the implementation of public investment budget, the methodology used in this research is quality method, the theory used in this research work is classical organization theory.

The findings in this research shows that public investment budget in Kumba 1 Sub-Division is due to the polices put in place by the council to improve their livelihood, the theory used in this res According to the findings, some projects could not be realized because of embezzlement and corruption within the authorities and some stakeholders.

Based on this, the research recommends that there should be seminars and meetings to educate some contractors and workers so as to improve on their output. Equally, there should be a committee to follow up contracts when awarded to contractors so that they can execute their projects in time.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Meme is a department of the Southwest Region in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 3,105 km² and had a total population of around 800,000. The capital of the department lies at Kumba.

Kumba is the headquarters of the Meme division in the South West region of Cameroon. It is located in the tropical rainforest belt of Cameroon. The town lies 120 km NW of Douala (Cameroon’s economic capital), at an altitude of 275 m above sea level, along the rain shadow slopes of Mount Cameroon.

Kumba is the most densely populated town in the South West region, second in rank in Anglophone Cameroon to Bamenda and tenth in ranking nationally. It is the largest commercial town in the South West region and seat of a dynamic and enterprising population. Kumba has an estimated population of about 400.000 inhabitants with about ¾ of this population falling within the youthful age group. The increase in population is as a result of increase in birth rate and a fall in infant mortality rate as a result of improvement in Infant health care and migrations (Rural – Urban). The N8 and N16 highways meet at Kumba.

The main occupants of the Kumba are  the Bafaws, this can be traced to a certain Esambe Ngoe from the Mboh plane of the Nkongsamba region. He settled at a place called Mashuie found around Kokobuma, history holds it that one of his sons a Hunter Midiki Bokeng left for hunting and founded Kumba. In his honor a monument has been put up around the Town Green.

The main ethnic group of Kumba are the Bafaw and the Bakundus. Bafaw is an ethnic group who speak Lifaw, a language similar to Duala, and the Bakundu ethnic group who speak the Bakundu language (Orocko language), Mboh, Bakundu Language and Bakossi, and certainly Southern Bantoid. Due to its cosmopolitan nature, the Bafaw and the Bakundu now form just a percentage of the general population; Nigerians (foreigners from the West African coast) and Grasslanders (Ngemba, Widikum, Banso, Kom and Bamiléke) are present in Kumba.

Kumba is a metropolitan city in the Meme department, Southwest Region, Western Cameroon, commonly referred to as “K-town” colloquially. Kumba is the largest and most developed city in the Meme Department and is increasingly drawing in residents from the local villages such as Mbonge. It is also the largest urban area in the South-West. Kumba has an estimated population of about 400,000 with three quarters of this population being young due to advancement in medicine and lowering infant mortality. Meanwhile, five municipalities in the Region stand at 0-1 execution rate.

The representative of the Southwest Governor urged contractors and Mayors to redouble their efforts in 2019 for the projects to be realized.

Execution of the projects in the Southwest Region financed by the Government via the Public Investment Budget, PIB, stands at 7.5 percent against 17.24 percent last year.

The figures were made public Thursday, July 25, in Buea, during the first semester participatory and follow up committee meeting on the execution of public investment budget  in the Region.

The Southwest Regional Delegate of the Economy Planning and Regional Development, Godlove Buinda, blamed the low execution rate on the Anglophone Crisis.

“Some bidders are not very willing to go to some of the difficult areas to execute the projects,” he said.

Buinda also identified the late award of contracts by some Tenders’ Boards in the Region, complains of unpaid bills for contractors, as some of the challenges that have led to the low execution rate. (Reported by the guardian post newspaper)

“They said most of their bills at the treasury have not been paid. They said without money, they cannot bid for new projects, while projects they have executed have not been paid,” he explained.

Such challenges have led to zero execution rate in some Divisions in the Region.

In Meme Division with four Council areas, no project has been executed according to the Delegate.

To achieve this, Buinda said all hands must be on deck to ensure that projects are executed.

However, some contractors, invited at the meeting blamed administrative bottlenecks in the award and payment of contracts by Government.

This shocking execution rate leaves the region in a precarious situation with the denizens who are to benefit from the fallouts of these projects in a dilemma. The statistics were revealed in the presence of stakeholders who gathered to evaluate the rate of implementation of the public investment budget recently in Kumba 1 Sub-Division

The aforementioned measures among others, the members of the follow-up committee noted will ensure that the FCFA 9.7 billion Public Investment Budget allocated for the South West will be translated to projects that will benefit the local population.

Speaking to the reporters, the South West Regional Delegate of Economy, Planning and Regional Development lamented the slow pace of the execution and noted that if these projects are not carried out, it will have a toll on the population in the future.

“We have a number of projects that were sent to the South West region. They include, road construction works, construction of classrooms, the construction of some regional delegations. We also have a number of water projects in , ; electrification in  division, ”KUMBA,  separatist war in the English-speaking regions has made it impossible to complete repairs and construction of public works like schools and roads in Kumba 1 Sub-Division of the south west Region of Cameroon .

Nearly all contractors and their workers have been chased off by separatist fighters who have vowed to make the regions ungovernable, an official says.  “Emmanuel Ngome”, an educator in the town of Kumba, says those numbers indicate the separatists who vowed to make it impossible for the government to operate in the two regions are succeeding.

“There is no life, nothing is actually moving, projects have been abandoned, the contractors have all fled,” Ngome said. “They are running for their lives. At this moment, there is a standstill totally. You see nothing. No business. You see empty houses, ghost streets and everything has been abandoned totally. People have been kidnapped. It is every day.” (The Advocate newspaper 2019)

The crisis in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions began in 2016 when teachers and lawyers protested what they saw as the overbearing use of the French language in the bilingual country.

While decrying the low rate of execution, the authorities noted that by this time last year, 93.44% of expected bidding documents were received whereas this year they have registered just 67.06%. It was also revealed that the percentage of project launching for 2019 is lower than the previous year as well as the award and notification of contracts.

To ameliorate the situation, the committee resolved that some key contractors should be invited during participatory follow-up meetings so as to present the difficulties they are facing on the field during execution of projects and equally share their experience/strategies they used to execute projects in difficult areas

1.2 Statement of the problem

It is important to note that public investment in Cameroon is meant to provide social and economic amenities for public consumption like schools, hospitals, potable water, roads and a lot more.  The problematic here is the area of poor execution of these projects. One of the many reasons for this is administrative bottle necks, bribery and corruption.

Many at times before a contract is awarded to a contractor, he is expected to bribe his way to have the contract which will not actually permit him to do an effect work hence either delaying the work or the project is not executed, after paying (19.25% ) as value added tax “VAT” to the government, you are expected to see other officials to further negotiate what percentage to give them to award you the contact. This account for the low and poor execution of public investment in Cameroon and south west in particular. This accounts to poor roads networks in kumba, inadequate water supply, poor health facilities just to mention a few.

1.3 Research Questions

1.3.1 The Main Research Question

How effective is the implementation of investment budget to the people of Kumba 1 Sub-Division

1.3.2 Specific Research Questions

1. What are the challenges militating the implementation of the investment budget in the Kumba 1 Sub-Division?
2. What is the impact of the investment budget on the people of Kumba 1 Sub-Division?

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