Administrative staff of the Kinshasa Provincial Assembly have a total of four months of salary arrears. And several voices are already rising to deplore this state of affairs, since we know very well that the provincial deputies of the city receive their emoluments as they should.

It is therefore hardly understandable that the administration, which is working hard to ensure the success of the various tasks of Members both upstream and downstream, should be left to its own fate.

« The provincial deputies only see their own interests. We do a lot of work here for the benefit of the people of Kinshasa and Kinshasa, but often we are forgotten, » a member of the legislative body’s administration, tired of promises, told Zoom Eco anonymously.

Reacting to Top Congo’s microphone on 8 October 2019, Kinshasa Provincial Assembly President Godéfroid Mpoyi Kadima explained that the only difficulty encountered was that the government had not yet been put in place, which delayed things.

« The money must come from the central government. We do not have a base that can support this burden at the provincial level. This is not only a problem that concerns the city of Kinshasa alone, all the provincial assemblies of the republic have the same problem. We have already taken steps with the authorities to find a solution to this problem, and we are disciplined, » he said.

Godé Mpoyi insisted on appeasing both sides, avoiding further upheavals, such as the questions of the severance pay for former MLAs who are at odds with him to this day, or the demands around former cabinet members who worked in the previous legislature, to name just two.

This situation of financial dependence on the part of the central Government once again raises real questions about the problem of decentralization, which is not only a simple deconcentration of power, but also of resources.

At the same time, it would be commendable to raise the thorny issue of the return of the forty percent that should be returned to the provinces, which is still not happening, and the effective implementation of the provincial civil service, which should be managed by the provinces, under the supervision of the central Government.

Harris KASONGO