Abstract

In this piece of work, the role of local government in the Buea Municipality has been explored from a Local Government perspective.

Often referred to as the sphere of government closest to the people, this dissertation has explored the potential for local government to positively impact residents’ quality of life and provide opportunities for citizen engagement and participation in key issues and within the hotel development field.

As a level of government, it is contended that local government in Buea has six main roles: Economic; social; Education; health; cultural, and sports.

These roles have been reviewed from the following perspectives: the context within which local government in Buea undertakes these roles; the impacts of these roles on hotel development in Buea: the limitations or challenges that impede the achievement of these roles; how these roles benefit the community and what proposals could be introduced to enhance their implementation.

The examination of local government’s role in the development of hotels in the Buea Municipality has also been examined within its historical, political, and financial context. A quantitative research method was utilized in this piece of work.

The relevant literature has been examined and discussed within the context of the three perspectives as listed above. As a result of the research for this piece of work, a number of key recommendations have been identified that would progress the effectiveness of the local government’s role in hotels development in Buea.

These recommendations focus on the enhancement of local government’s image, increased facilitation of citizen engagement, a review of the legal and political framework within which local government operates, and in particular local government’s relationship with the state government, enhancement of local government’s financial capacity.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background And Context Of The Study

The existence of local government in any locality has always been defended on the basis that it is a crucial aspect of the process of democratization and intensification of mass participation in the decision-making process.

It is furthermore argued that no political system is considered complete and democratic if it does not have a system of local government. (Mawhood, 1993, Wraith, 1964).

The role of local government in their respective environments is carried out in two folds. The first purpose is administrative in nature involving the supply of goods and services to the inhabitants while the other purpose is to represent the involvement of citizens in determining specific local public needs and how these needs can be met.; a secure and adequate source for income generation, proper housing, health care, education, safety and an environment favorable to daily life and work.(Humes and Martin,1969).

Local government is a product of devolution as a dimension of decentralization. The idea of local government can also be looked at from two approaches. The first approach which is usually adopted in comparative studies is to regard all such natural structures below the central government as local government.

A second approach is more circumspect in that local government is identified by certain defining characteristics.

These characteristics usually focus on the following five attributes; legal personality, specified powers to perform a wide range of functions, substantial budgeting and staffing autonomy subject to limited central control, effective citizens participation, and localness. (Olowu, 1988).

These are regarded as essential to distinguish it from all other forms of local institutions and also ensure its organizational effectiveness. Robson (1937) defines local government from a legal point of view to involving the conception of a territorial non-sovereign community possessing the legal rights and necessary organization to regulate its own affairs.

This, in turn, presupposes the existence of local authority with the power to act independently of external control as well as the participation of the local community in the administration of its own affairs. For this local population to effectively contribute to achieving growth there must be urban development or management.

It is generally understood as referring to the development and governance of urban settlements, whether we are talking about small towns, large cities, or metropolises (United Nations, 1997).

The core of international activities on urban management is the urban management program (UMP), set up and funded by the United Nations Development Program(UNDP) together with external support agencies and undertaken jointly by the United Nations Center for Human Settlements.

The UMP is trying to develop and promote adequate policies and tools for city finances and administration, land and infrastructure management, and urban environmental management.

Considering the wide scope of the Urban Management Program in various regional, sub-regional and local contexts, the UMP has not been directly concerned with the elaboration of a rigorous conceptual definition of urban development.

Municipal management can be defined as a sub-category of local public administration, referring to those local administrative authorities managing the cities defined as municipalities.

The meaning of this term varies from one country to another but most specialists agree that a local government or municipality must have the following characteristics; is an area delimited by well-defined administrative boundaries; has a predominantly urban character, is actually governed by a local body of elected authorities, at a lower administrative set-up (Urwick, 1957: 44-45).

Most local governments, whether they are rich or poor, or small, are facing problems of similar nature. These problems reflect the basic needs of every citizen; a secure and adequate source for income generation, proper housing, health care, education, safety, and an environment favorable to daily life and work.

In other to effectively examine the local government’s role in the development of hotels in Buea municipality, it is important to first all look at how local governments operate in Cameroon.

The main laws governing local government in Cameroon are law No 2004-17 on the orientation of Decentralization, law No 2004-18 on rules applicable to councils, and law No 2004- 19 on rules applicable to Regions.

The Ministry of Decentralization and Local Government is responsible for Government policy on territorial administration and local government. There are 374 local government councils, consisting of 360 municipal councils and 14 city councils.

All councils have similar responsibilities and powers for service delivery with the exception of sub-divisional councils, which have a modified set of powers. Council’s responsibilities for service delivery include utilities, town planning, health, social services, and primary education. (www.cigf.uk-cameroon)

Local councils in Cameroon can therefore perform the following roles; utilities, including water, sewage, and waste disposal; town planning and urban development; Municipal roads and public transport; birth, marriage and death registration; community health and safety; social services; primary education and literacy; sport, culture, and leisure.

Therefore the local government’s role in hotel development could be found mainly on its town planning and urban development role. It is worth mentioning that local chiefs are auxiliaries of the local administration and chiefs are permitted and often do take part in local elections. They also play an important role as custodians of local lands to enhance hotel development (www.cigf.uk-Cameroon).

Hotel business development applies to the full spectrum of the hotel business, from strategic or day-to-day operations to expanding the organization’s market exposure. Typically developers purchase a tract of land, determine the marketing of the property, develop the building program and design, obtain the necessary public approval and financing, build the structures, manage and ultimately sell it(https: en.m.wikipedia.org).

The development of hotels also, therefore, enhances the socio-economic development of a municipality is hotel development can only be enhanced in a municipality where there is a stable and prosperous economy.

The recent efforts towards decentralization and the long-standing history of local government cannot be understood without the role of traditional authorities. Political power and institutions in Cameroon have changed substantially from the pre-colonial era to the present.

Although traditional leaders are still present, they no longer wield the power and authority of pre-colonial times and have significantly changed their roles under the colonial and post-colonial states. Nevertheless, traditional authorities have persisted (Fisiy, 1992).

With regards to land tenure, traditional authorities play a role in the assessment and management of property and resources within their sphere of control. Before colonization, all land belonged to the community. The chiefs will manage the land on behalf of the community’s welfare (Mandani, 1996).

For someone who did not belong to the community, land access was possible in exchange for a set of goods negotiated by the chief (Young, 1965).

In addition to their customary legal authority, traditional rulers play a role on the land consultative board (on the order of article13, decree No 2005-481 on 16 December 2005).

In this capacity, they propose uses for rural spaces, give their opinion on land concessions, interpret the law and adjudicate complaints about land titles, choose land for collective village property and make recommendations on the management of land governed by the national domain (Rochegude and Plancon 2009).

In the Buea municipal council, the department responsible for hotel development being a commercial real estate property is the town planning department and they carry out the following functions; they implement the organizational policies on development.

They coordinate urban development policies, they follow up the realization of urban development projects and confirm them to town planning laws and policies, they participate in the technical designing of real estate projects, verify and manage projects for proper execution in conformity with planned and contract specification, site plan, building permit (The town planning department of the Buea council).

Never the less the role of local government authorities as a source of satisfying basic needs and enhancing hotel development is becoming less important.

First, the cost of land, infrastructure, building materials, equipment, housing, and jobs which are key elements for development, maintenance, and operation of human settlements had increased significantly both in Buea.

The factors which have determined these cost increase in developing countries are the rapid growth of the population and the stagnation or reduction of local government budgets. The mix of these factors is creating a dramatic and widening gap between the growing needs and limited local government resources.

1.2. Statement Of The Problem

In line with the current global trend of streamlining the role of the state, the government of most developing countries has devolved powers to grassroots institutions with a view to enhancing development. But in reality, such devolutions have in many cases been quite inefficient to achieve this goal because of the stringent central control.

The need to empower the local people responds to the growing recognition that local people in developing countries lack control over resources and opportunity to participate in the decision-making process, the hotel development process will only have partial positive effects in Buea if the local government in an effort to undertake their roles make positive efforts in solving the major problems of the municipality.

Transfer of autonomy is not complete as the government still plays a supervisory role. The council which is supposed to be an independent institution having a legal personality with financial autonomy for a given financial year and a decentralize electoral collectivity has instead depended on the central government for planning, directing, and the implementation of municipal policies, and this has greatly affected investments in hotels in the Buea Municipality.

Also, the ambiguity of key provisions of the law has enabled central Government officials such as the Senior Divisional Officer (SDO) known as supervisory authorities to encroach upon the powers and prerogatives of the local government officials.

These supervisory authorities have instead transformed their authority mainly to supervise to their authority to command, to issue orders, to give instructions, to direct, to the right to employ resources, to make commitments, to exercise

formalized control over local government resources. Even in those limited matters in which powers have been expressly devolved to local authorities by the law, such powers amount to nothing in practice because their operationalization is subject to stringent central government controls.

This has gone a long way to induce selfish desires in the minds of these elected local Government officials together with these supervisory authorities to embezzle local government funds which were purposed for real estate development.

As a result, there is no effective participation and representation because there is in effect little room for participation and representation at local levels; yet participation and representation are indispensable ingredients of democracy.

But on the contrary local governments have not been giving full autonomy to manage resources without consulting their administrative guardians like the senior divisional officer who does not understand the plight of the local population.

This slows down hotel development coupled with the fact that financial resources do not cope with the available needs; this has only slowed development and has to give them a financial challenge as they have to at times wait for money from Yaounde to pay council workers.

These supervisory authorities cannot meet the growing needs of the municipality as these are the main objectives of every local government.

The confusing tendencies and the unclear legislative provisions concerning local government authorities with their supervisory authorities only go a long way to encourage corruption and other malpractices as the people’s plight are always underlooked.

Another problem faced by the Local governments in the Buea Municipality is that of personnel and competence. Survey has shown that in recent years there has been more qualified staff in the administration than in the technical and professional fields.

One also hardly finds a statistician or a social scientist in this department. Corrupt practices to an extent have had a negative impact on the development of Hotels in the Municipality.

The impact of all these is that planning for hotel development is handicapped in the local government of Buea because of the lack of sufficient qualified staff and corruption. Plans, therefore, become an incremental thing. Professional advice to politicians to suffer as a result of the quality of intellectual weight brought to bear on the exercise.

When it comes to implementation it is replete with the same stories. Targets and standards in planning hotel development may suffer as a result of the paucity of professional requirements and competence. Even where there are qualified staffs to do these they will still fall victim to the corruptive influence of society brought to them by either the contractor or politician or community pressure.

In summary, the local government lacks the executive, technical and professional competences to formulate good plans and implement them.

The increase of hotel structures without respect for building norms is one of the problems faced by the Buea local government authority in the development of hotels.

1.3. Research Questions

1. What is the role played by the local government in the development of hotels in Buea?
2. What is the impact of Local Government activities on the development of hotels in Buea?
3. What is the challenge the local Government faces to effectively carry out its activities in the development of hotels in Buea?
4. What is the recommendation that could be advanced to the Buea Local Government authorities to improve on hotels development?