The PIC’s Representative, Mr Fonju Bernard with the D.O of West-Coast Division and some participants 

Community Stakeholders of Idenau Municipality has appealed to the Council to improve on the Hygiene and Sanitation of the Municipality. The appeal was made to Council authorities during a one-day Town-Hall meeting organized by the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator (OPIC) on Thursday 21 March 2024 at the CDC Fire Burn Hall in Idenau. Held under the theme: Office of the Public Independent Conciliator “Examining How Community Stakeholders of Idenau Municipality can Impact the Delivery of Quality Services to Users”, the meeting brought together administrators, traditional authorities, Women groups, youth associations and economic operators.

Taking the floor to welcome participants during the opening ceremony, the Mayor of Idenau Council, Tonde Lifanje Gabriel hailed OPIC for the initiative to sensitize the populations of the municipality about the institution. The Divisional Officer of West Coast subdivision, Ngaigang Stephen on his part charged the participants to take advantage of the presence of OPIC officials to acquire knowledge about the institution put in place by the government to serve the population.

The PIC’s Representative, Mr. Fonju Bernard delivering the Opening statement 

The Representative of the Public Independent Conciliator, Mr. Fonju Bernard said the ardent desire of OPIC in organizing the town-hall meeting was to work with frontline community stakeholders of Idenau municipality in order to enhance service delivery bearing in mind the goal to meet the expectations of users. OPIC also wishes that users play their role and also contribute in building a user-friendly culture with the Council by fulfilling their duties and respecting their obligations towards the council, he added. “We focused on how community stakeholders can impact on the quality-of-service delivery to citizen. Quality service delivery is not a one-way traffic or responsibility incumbent only on the council. The local stakeholders also have an important role to play. So, we brought them together for us to establish a platform for better collaboration and to enable them make their contributions to the improvement of local governance”, he told the press.

                Traditional Rulers present at the Town-Hall meeting 

This objective set aside by OPIC was attained as during the question-and-answer session that followed the two presentations (Missions of the Office of the Public Independent and the Rights and Obligations of Users of Council services) participants raised issues concerning the wellbeing of the municipality. Among the issues raised, focus was on the problem of hygiene. Community stakeholders decried the poor hygienic conditions of restaurants, dumping of waste in gutters, the transformation of a primary school premises to a huge refuge dump, lack of toilets in bars and on/off-licenses. Other issues raised include misunderstanding related to civil status registration, insecurity, poor supply of drinking water, unhealthy competition from traders who do not pay taxes, and noise. Answers and clarifications were given by the representative of the PIC, resources persons, the Lord Mayor and the Secretary General of the Idenau Council.  The Lord Mayor, for instance explained to participants reasons why a definite site for waste disposal is not yet available. He assured the community stakeholders of an immediate action to be taken to tackle the issue irresponsible dumping of refuge in the municipality. He equally promised to embark on improving water supply to add to the pipe-borne water and the over 10 boreholes found in the town.

It is important to mention that this Town-Hall meeting enabled the community stakeholders to learn about the missions, competences, complaint procedure of OPIC, as well as acquire know-how on how to improve on ways to access council services, adopt a friendly attitude towards municipal authorities while fulfilling their obligations towards the municipality.  The President of Idenau Bike Riders Union, Yannick Mwaso while speaking to journalists at the end of the meeting, took the engagement to sensitize his members to regularize their bike documents and respect municipal orders on how to carry their activities.