The 2024 distribution of the Local Economic Contribution on added value (Cel/Va) will, incontestably, cause an insurmountable imbalance in the management and functioning of cities in Senegal, particularly Rufisque which, according to its mayor, will no longer be “viable financially” because it is limited to paying salaries and debts. He made the revelation during the Municipal Council devoting the vote on the 2025 budget held on Saturday December 21 in the deliberation room of the Rufisque town hall..
“Today, December 21, 2024, the town of Rufisque is no longer financially viable. A city is no longer valid if it pays 60% of its ordinary income in salaries,” revealed Dr Oumar Cisse. Who explains: “A city is not viable if it is forced to interrupt all its programs to only pay its debts. The budget, which was voted on, in 2025, is less than 2 billion CFA francs. It just means it's last year's budget minus two billion. This also means that it is a budget that will be used to pay salaries and discharge debts. I don't feel like a mayor who spends his time paying salaries and debts. This doesn’t make sense!”
On the attempt to justify the distribution key by the Minister of Local Authorities, Mayor Rufisque wanted to be very clear.
“I saw in the press release from the Ministry of Local Authorities that certain cities had structural deficits which were not linked to the Cel. This is not our case in Rufisque. In 2021, there was a deficit of 350 million FCFA, in 2022 it was 100 million. The sum of these amounts makes 450 million CFA francs of deficit completely erased in 2023. I did not have a deficit in 2023 but, as I speak to you, we are at a deficit of 380 million because if I had been warned in time I would never have incurred certain expenses. But, as usual, I'm organized enough to cope. As soon as the new authorities were installed, I wrote to the ministers of communities and finance. It was to draw their attention to Cel. Because the law, which was designed in 2019, is not good.
Beyond his diagnosis and rectification, the first magistrate of Rufisque recommended solutions to put things back to order and prevent populations from suffering the collateral damage of Cel/Va.
“This is why I proposed, among the solutions, a new reform of this 2019 law. We need to 'jubanti bobou law' We are working on that. We are in the process of mobilizing three types of resources for local taxes, built land, CEL/VA. All the next semesters, we will work to mobilize them. We had carried out a census in 2022, it was after that Promoged intervened to support the Dgid in mobilizing sufficient resources and reviewing the tax databases. So, there will be a question of a new census, reviewing the roles as well as the entire process of the law. This means, and I have already discussed this with the unions, in 2025 I need a Revenue Division that works without strikes. Because we need to replace this type of resource,” says Dr Oumar Cisse.
On the relations between the town hall and the Rufisque cement factory, the urban expert is optimistic and announces a profitable partnership for the Rufisques residents. “Our discussions with Sococim date back more than a year. With Dg El Hadj Mamadou Seck, we are on our fifth one-on-one meeting. Because as soon as we discussed, we had the same vision on how to work, not only on CSR, I am not talking about the Sococim resource or the fact that it pays 1.3 billion CFA francs every month for around twenty years in accordance with the provisions of the Mining Convention. But we decided to be more ambitious than that by working on a partnership agreement to resolve the problems that seemed to us to be the most acute in the city. This concerns, for example, sanitation, roads, etc.,” further informed the councilor of the town of Rufisque.
Before emphasizing the significant contribution of Sococim, 70% and 30% for Rufisque, in this agreement in the finalization phase. Upon signature, a call for applications for the coordination of sanitation and road projects will be launched, according to Dr Cisse. Who adds that two steering and monitoring committees will be set up.
The budget of the city of Rufisque for the year 2025 was voted on during the Municipal Council this Saturday, December 21, 2024 and amounts to 4,939,821,438 FCFA. Compared to that of 2024 which was stopped at 6,840,971,978 fcfa, a drastic drop of almost two billion fcfa was noted, or exactly 28%.
This reduction follows the interministerial decree distributing the Cel/Va which was published very late on November 21, 2024, and attributing to the City of Rufisque the very modest amount of 17,231,396 fcfa, while it was expected an allocation greater than 832,901,738 fcfa received in 2023.
The Mayor magnified the presence of all layers of the population, namely Imams, neighborhood leaders, badjénous Gokh, the sports world, traditional communicators, zone presidents, neighborhood councils, presidents of Asc , the presidents of women's groups etc… for the importance they attach to the future of the City of Rufisque.
