Senegalese Government Cripples Opposition Mayors

UNCLAS DAKAR 000643 SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPT FOR AF/W, AF/RSA, DRL AND INR/AA PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PINS KDEM ECON SG SUBJECT: Senegalese Government Cripples Opposition Mayors ¶1. (SBU) Summary: On April 28, the Cabinet presented a draft law to the National Assembly to amend the Urban Code to allow the State to forgo the need to have local mayors countersign construction or building projects in their administrative zones. The Minister of Urban Affairs will be given that power. This law seems to target the ambitious Socialist Mayor of Dakar, Khalifa Sall, who said he intends to investigate a slew of corrupt construction projects that the last administration had been involved in. End Summary. GOS takes power back -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The new law will amend Article 68 of the Urban Code that was just promulgated in August 2008. Article 68 states "An authorization is required for any construction or renovation of buildings located in the administrative territory of local governments." Article 70 of the same Code stipulates that it is the Mayors and the Presidents of rural communities, i.e. locally elected officials, who have the power to give such authorizations. Since losing a large number of major cities to the opposition in recently concluded local elections, the government blatantly wants to limit the ability of these mayors to interfere or stop various pet government construction projects. Consequently article 68 of the Urban Code will have the following provision added to it, "For State, Public Services, those entrusted with the conduct of a public service, and all projects considered to be of public utility, the compulsory administrative authorization for these works shall be given by the Minister in charge of Urban Affairs". Hostilities begin -------------- ¶3. (SBU) This change in the law is a clear indication that the central government is not going to play nice with the opposition mayors. By including a provision on "projects deemed of public utility", the government has an open-ended weapon to employ against local officials who rely on central government subsidies to support most of their public utility projects. A ruling party leader, who until his party's defeat was Deputy Mayor of Dakar, told Embassy that the new Mayor will soon realize that his hands are totally tied. He noted that although the City of Dakar has a projected budget of 34 billion CFA (68 million USD),Mayor Sall will be lucky if he can get anywhere near that amount because it is the central government that collects most of the taxes for the city and they do not have enough personnel to do so. The former Deputy Mayor scoffed at a plan by Mayor Sall to give one billion CFA to each of the 19 local governments under his jurisdiction. He said with a payroll of 7 billion CFA plus a grant of 2 billion CFA mandated by law that he must distribute to the aforementioned 19 local governments plus maintenance costs of about 3 billion CFA plus other operating costs such as public lights, Sall will find that he has very little room to maneuver. He further commented that the city of Dakar has about 3,000 employees, and that Mayor Sall cannot escape the pressure of recruiting his political backers who expect jobs from him. This client system explains why there are so many people on the city's payroll who have no real duties or responsibilities. COMMENT -------------- ¶4. (SBU) This amendment is a step back in Senegal's long drawn out decentralization process. The March 22 local election placed many new mayors at the head of Senegal's major cities; new mayors who will use their positions to challenge the ruling party for political supremacy in the run-up to the 2012 presidential elections. Yet, in the near term, the government's use of strong arm tactics such as withholding funds from cities that desperately need money just to meet the people's most basic needs means that the only people who are really going to suffer as the government and the opposition duke it out are the Senegalese people. Bernicat