Road Maintenance in Cameroon : PM Instructs Strict Compliance With Relevant Provisions

The Prime Minister, Head of Government, His Excellency Joseph Dion Ngute, chaired the 25th session of the National Road Board (CONAROUTE) on Thursday, 17 March 2022 from 10:00 a.m., at the Auditorium of his Office, on the theme “Decentralisation of road maintenance and urban roads in Cameroon.”
The agenda included the following items:
l. “Powers and resources devolved by the State to Regional and Local Authorities in the area of road maintenance, rehabilitation and maintenance of urban roads in Cameroon”, by the Minister of Decentralisation and Local Development;
2.    "List of roads devolved to each Region by the State to Regional and Local Authorities", by the Minister of Public Works;
3.    "List of urban roads devolved to each city by the State to Regional and Local Authorities", by the Minister of Housing and Urban Development.
In his opening speech, the Prime Minister commended the significant efforts undertaken by Government, in line with the devolution of powers to Councils and Regions, with regard to road maintenance. He also pointed out the need for all institutional actors to comply with Government's objective of speeding up decentralisation, in accordance with the Instructions of the Head of State, which prohibit reliance on "centrally managed projects" for powers henceforth devolved to Regional and Local Authorities.
Following the report of the Permanent Secretary of CONAROUTE on the implementation of instructions from the 24th session of this board, the Minister of Decentralisation and Local Development, whose speech focused on the Council, stated that decentralisation is the fundamental axis for promoting development, democracy and good governance. To this end, road works, rehabilitation and maintenance of roads, as well as other devolved areas, significantly contribute to local development. In fact, the effective use of these powers by Councils would speed up local development and improve the living conditions and environment of the beneficiary communities.
With regard specifically to the powers devolved by the State to Councils, they cover the creation and maintenance of unclassified rural roads. As for the rehabilitation and maintenance of urban roads, they concern the creation and maintenance of municipal roads, as well as the execution of related works.
He also reiterated that in order to enable the Councils to exercise the powers devolved to them by the State, in the area of road works, rehabilitation and maintenance of urban roads, in the best possible way and to make the most of it for their communities, the Ministers concerned by the devolution of such powers have signed orders laying down the conditions and technical procedures for their exercise.
Speaking after him, the Minister of Public Works stated that regional and municipal roads account for 11.34% and 80.87% of Cameroon's road network respectively. In the light of Article 7 of Decree No. 2017/144 of 20 April 2017 on road classification, project management on regional roads and municipal roads is the responsibility of the Regions and Councils, respectively. To this end, all regional roads, 13 817.86 km long, are systematically devolved to the Regions and municipal roads, 98 560.22 km long, are devolved to the Councils, including urban roads. Regional roads are identified by Decree No. 2017/8389/PM of S September 2017 on numbering. The continuation of the municipal road inventory process is underway in the remaining 171 municipalities.
With regard to the resources devolved to each Region, the Minister announced that the 2022 road maintenance programme covers 502.38 km of toads to be maintained, 291.40 linear km of engineering structures, for an amount of CFA F 3.418.821 covering 17 projects. As for municipal roads, the overall financial allocation stands at CFA F 26.484 billion, that is CFA F 12.747 billion under the 2022 PIB; CFA F 12.500 billion under the 2022 Road Fund and CFA F 1.412 billion of carry-over allocations to 31 December 2021.
As for the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, the process of devolution of powers, which began in 2011, has been further accelerated by the adoption of Law No. 2019/024 of 24 December 2019 to institute the General Code of Regional and Local Authorities. Thus, some local authorities receive budgetary allocations each year f...