Abstract        

The creation of city councils to ease service delivery in the municipality, creation of the ministry of public contract, putting in place a contract board through continuous technical and financial assistance in the Kumba councils.

Though several attempts have been made to enhance service delivery of local government through continuous technical and financial assistance, it is realised that in most cases, the local people where totally excluded from getting public services due to a number of factors ranging from political interference, corruption lack of competition, poor public private partnership, inadequate financial resources.

Despite these measures, service delivery in the Buea municipality have not improved. Thus, the main objective is to examine the extent to which a mix of service delivery systems result efficiently in the provision of services by local government, in most cases the local people were socially excluded. a reason being that, the central government impose to the local government and also the local government lack resources to fully carry out their duties of service provision. In order to achieved this objective, primary data was then collected from these participants using a questionnaire to sample participants using purposive and convenient sampling techniques.

The major findings of this study is that, local government service in the Buea Municipality implemented several strategies and innovations as developing partnerships with the private sectors and also enhance the public partnership in the service delivery process, but still failed to ensure accountability, efficiency and transparency in service delivery.

It is realised that, some of hindrances to the realisation of accountability, efficiency and transparency of local government service provision is that, the councils lack autonomy to bring about a level of efficiency and accountability in their management and provision of services. this includes shortage of competence human resources, political interference, unclear power and functions to provide services, inadequate financial resources and unqualified staffs. It was recommended that local governments in Cameroon need adequate autonomy that can assist them to be efficient in-service delivery.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

One of the most fundamental problems that African societies are confronted with is the transition from the state-centred economy or neo-centralism to liberal or neo-liberal economic systems. The transition from centralist to liberal systems is complicated by the fact that the new paradigm stresses decentralization, subsidiarity, use of public-private partnership and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in former public functions and citizen participation in policy formulation and implementation. Institutional reform towards strengthening decentralization policies is becoming increasingly important in Africa.

As a result, local governments are gaining authority, powers and legitimacy in the political processes. The role of local governments in the delivery of social services like health and education is growing too. Thus, the scope and possibilities for local governments to play a significant role in improving economic governance and public-private dialogue (both major drivers for a better business environment and the creation of balanced growth and wealth) are gaining momentum (Van Der Val & Hilhorst, 2007).

Local or municipal governments are directly responsible for a range of public services. Local streets, roads, street lighting, fire and police protection, and neighbourhood parks are almost always funded from local taxes, grants from senior governments, and other locally generated revenues. In many countries, local or municipal governments are also responsible for service delivery for which they charge user fees or prices – water, recreation, public transit, and so on. For all municipal services, local government staff and personnel generally share accounting, auditing, and legal services, municipal employees, and capital equipment. As for governance, local councils are responsible for making policy decisions for all services, including the trade-off between spending on one service rather than another.

Local government enterprises may be separated into those that operate in an environment where there are no competitors and those that openly compete with the private sector. For the former, there is only one supplier – a public sector monopolist. Water and sewers in a municipality, for example, are the responsibility of one agency – a separate utility or business enterprise, sometimes under the direct governance of the municipality and sometimes under the governance structure of a special-purpose board or commission that tends to have features and characteristics similar to those of a separate business entity.

Similarly, electricity is the responsibility of one agency, as is public transit, and so on. Furthermore, services with high infrastructure costs such as water, sewers, and electricity have characteristics of a natural monopolist. A natural monopolist is often depicted by local utility services (water, sewers, and natural gas, which is a municipal responsibility). Their predominant characteristic for analytical purposes here is that they exhibit decreasing per unit costs over the entire range of output (economies of scale). Others, such as public transit, may not benefit from economies of scale over their entire output (not a natural monopolist) but are, nevertheless, provided in a protected setting. In short, there is no competition for many of these services (electricity, water, and sewers) and limited and indirect competition for others (cars competing with public transit, for instance).

For publicly provided goods or services that compete with the private sector, there is the question of whether the public sector should be involved at all. In response, there is no solid economic rationale for public sector provision, although such provision has been defended based on generating revenue for the local government. Examples include public-sector involvement in bakeries, paint shops, flower shops, sports clubs, mushroom growing, and handicraft businesses in Russia (Kurlyandskaya, Nikolayenko, and Golovanova 2001).

In Cameroon, attempts to monitor the efficiency of local government structures in the provision of services only gained prominence in June 2000 when the report on a national programme to monitor the gradual implementation of the reform to decentralise institutions to promote democracy and grassroots development was presented (Ewumbue-Mnono 2001). The report highlighted the need for decentralised units. Devolve powers to local entities and the need for effective transfer of powers. From this report, a national policy on decentralisation was adopted in 2000.

The extent to which these policy documents, coupled with local government performance, and measurement tools have helped improve the performance of councils in Cameroon in service provision is what this study intends to investigate. The essence is that national documents and policy statements have all called for the transfer of more financial resources to councils, for these councils to manage these resources.

It is believed that an increase in finance, will eventually result in efficiency and improved council’s performance in service provision. But the drives of council performance, go beyond finance. That is to say, an increase in finance may necessarily lead to an increase in service provision by councils. It is based on this that the current research seeks to investigate local government and the provision of services in Cameroon with the Buea Municipality as a case study.

1.2 Statement of Problem

A variety of arguments have been advanced in defence of using a mix of service delivery systems for the provision of services in Local and National Governments in Cameroon. Looking at the Cameroon constitution of January 18th 1996 article 55 (2) states that the regional and local authorities shall have administrative and financial autonomy and shall be freely administered by elected councils, but the problem is thus the local government have autonomy because according to article 58(1) (2) which states that a government delegate appointed by the president shall represent the state in regions, they shall be responsible for national interest, administrative control, ensuring compliance with laws and regulations as well as maintaining law and order.

They shall under the authority of the government supervise and coordinate state services in the region. They shall exercise the supervisory authority of the state over regions (Finken 1996) and argues that all the resolutions of the council must be approved by the supervisory authorities before they are enforceable. The supervisory powers of the central government agencies over councils are considered so strange to the council’s efforts in providing essential services to local communities. (Ahmad, 2005) cited several obstacles including the lack of capacities at some national levels of government to exercise the responsibility of public services. Limited ability to manage public finances and proper accountability

This efficiency is achieved within the local public sector when all service responsibilities are organized and allocated so that society gets the greatest possible gain from the use of all resources (inputs) at its disposal. In other words, if reliance on local government enterprises leads to the use of fewer resources than would be required if the same service were provided directly by local government, then it would be more efficient to provide the service by a local enterprise because society would be better off collectively. Economic efficiency is more than technical efficiency – the latter is a necessary but not sufficient condition for economic efficiency.

Technical efficiency exists when a producing unit (firm, government, commission) operates in such a way that it is not possible to secure any additional output given the available inputs (labour, material, and capital) and level of technology. In other words, technical efficiency is achieved when the output per unit of input is maximized or the cost per unit of output is minimized. This, it should be noted, is not concerned with whether one good or service generates more or fewer net benefits than another good or service. It simply concentrates on the efficient employment of inputs in the production of a specific good or service

In the provision of local public sector services, accountability is achieved when the customer or taxpayer can identify who is responsible for what and can link the governing unit responsible for the service directly to its funding. But in the case of Cameroon especially, Buea Municipality, the is a lot of political influence as the central government suppress the local government services with the creation of the city councils. Thereby making the service delivery process very complex.

Also, there is only one governing unit, taxpayers know who is responsible for what and who to contact if they wish to have an impact on decision making. Where there are several local governing units responsible for a diverse range of services, customers or taxpayers may become confused as in the case of Buea where the mayor and the government delegate have similar functions and do not know who is responsible for what and how to have an impact on decision-makers.

Consequently, as scholars of Public Administration, it becomes compelling to assess the extent to which the local government delivery system can be adopted in the provision of service delivery to local communities. Also, the extent to which decentralization provides efficient service delivery.

1.3 Research Questions       

1.3.1 Main Research Questions

To what extent does local government help in the provision of services in the Buea Municipality?

1.3.2. Specific Research Questions

1. To what extent does the establishment and management of enterprises by the Buea Council lead to the efficient and transparent provision of services?
2. Does the implementation of the Public-Private Partnerships lead to the efficient and transparent Provision of Services in Buea Council?
3. Is there a relationship between engaging Non-profit Organizations in service Delivery and the efficient provision of services in Buea Council?

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