A Rekindling of Hope in the Oil Producing Region

Inhabitants of the oil producing region around Doba and Bébédja are beginning to see the results of a policy that sends five percent of oil revenues back to the region, as school buildings and equipment, water towers, modern markets, and more are being built and refurbished with oil earnings.

Doba and Bébédja, two of the region’s main cities, are undergoing a facelift as construction moves forward on many fronts. Despite early difficulties, the Provisional Committee for Managing the Producing Region’s Oil Revenues (CPGRP), established in May 2005, anticipates the completion of a number of facilities with a delivery period of six to 16 months.

However, the committee must still answer to populations eager to enjoy their new infrastructure and a civil society skeptical of the effectiveness and impact of the projects undertaken.

Significant progress for Doba and Bébédja

Students and teachers at the Doba Center School started their school year with a modern, new building of six additional classrooms, financed by CPGRP at a cost of CFAF 210 million. The office of the school inspectorate, in a state of advanced decay, was also rehabilitated.

In addition, students will now be protected from the risk of accidents caused by the school’s proximity to the city’s only hospital and the administrative district. A wall more than 600 meters long was erected as part of the same project to build and expand the facilities of the school in the city's center, providing the school with better security.

In addition to the Center School, Doba students will also enjoy a modern secondary school this year, built under the same project. The school will boast a 14-classroom capability, two laboratories, an administrative building, and modern toilets. It will now be possible to alleviate the congestion at the city’s sole secondary school, overflowing with a growing number of young students. The facility cost approximately CFAF 790 million and was completed in six months.

The oil revenues will also fund an expansion of the city’s drinking water supply system. The construction of two water towers with a capacity of 150 m³ has just been completed, and all that remains is to connect them to the municipal system. A total of 15 standpipes have been built in different districts of the city, with the capacity to supply some 5,000 persons. These structures, at an estimated cost of more than CFAF 420 million, will meet the growing demand for drinking water of an increasingly overpopulated city that possesses little public infrastructure.

In Bébédja, one of the major CPGRP projects has been construction of the modern market. At a cost of nearly CFAF 1.8 billion, the market has been much anticipated, not only by inhabitants but also by civil society, which sees the market as a unifying element for this city’s various communities. After the intercommunity conflicts that bloodied this city a few years back, Bébédja found itself with a number of spontaneous markets, frequented separately by each resident community. Within this large new market, complete with modern shops and stands, the city will find some reconciliation.

As in Doba, the inhabitants of Bébédja will also enjoy new school infrastructure. CPGRP released roughly CFAF 65 million to fully equip the city’s secondary school with tables, bench tables, cabinets, chairs, desks, and refrigerators. Also in Bébédja, a wall was built around the city-center school at a cost of approximately CFAF 80 million.

Of the eight projects launched by CPGRP since it was set up in May 2005, six have been completed and approved or are in process. Therefore, two major construction sites remain for the city of Doba, which were started last October, according to the president of CPGRP, Mr. Ngarindo Milengar.

One of the 30 waterwells dug in the city of Doba to remedy the lack of drinking water

The first is the construction of the Doba Sports Stadium, whose cornerstone was laid by President Idriss Déby Itno. Work is expected to be completed in March 2008 at an estimated cost of CFAF 2.2 billion. In the field, the site has already been walled in and some of the building materials are now being stored on site.

A short distance away, the site of the future modern market of Doba is easily recognizable from the traces left by the houses and shops cleared to make room for this facility. Located along the city’s main street, this undertaking will also last 16 months and will cost, according to CPGRP projections, CFAF 2.5 billion.

An impatient population

The president of CPGRP is generally satisfied with the results and the committee’s 80 percent completion rate so far.

However, Mr. Milengar does not hide the fact that there have been delays in starting and finishing projects. He stresses that most of these delays can be attributed to the rainy season and its effects, as well as to the enterprises in charge of the construction activities, which sometimes fail to meet the deadlines specified in their contracts.

This optimism is not shared by all stakeholders, especially local civil society, which disputes the impact of the CPGRP projects reported by its president.

The Framework of Consultation for the Development of  Eastern Logone(CACODE-LOR), which works closely with CPGRP, does not always agree with the committee’s assessments. CACODE-LOR is a collective organization that includes NGOs, labor unions, human rights associations, economic operators, and groups.

According to its assessment, the CPGRP project completion rate is closer to 60 percent. The collective believes that construction of a facility is not the same thing as completion. As long as a facility is not yet available to the population, it cannot be considered finished.

Civil society believes that CPGRP has fallen short because, while the population sees results from a distance, it does not yet enjoy access to them. Because of this, it remains difficult to objectively assess the CPGRP record.

Meanwhile, the euphoria that surrounded the creation of CPGRP has been transformed into a great impatience on the part of local inhabitants and the development actors in the field. In some towns, the local population’s high expectations are also reflected in feelings of frustration about being marginalized in the use of funds.

The president of CPGRP has recognized that expectations are high, adding by way of explanation that the most frequent criticism faced by the committee relates to slowness in completing the work and the lack of visibility of the end results.

In addition, the very principle of five percent of revenues being allocated to the oil producing region is itself poorly understood by local inhabitants, who think that the funds should have been distributed to the most underprivileged groups in the form of cash rather than being used to build large public buildings.

For example, Lazare Toïdongar, Secretary-General of CACODE-LOR, said that “the five percent should be a social and community fund intended to help reduce poverty and improve the daily living conditions of inhabitants and, as such, CPGRP should fully absorb the concerns of beneficiary populations and the local realities.”

One last hurdle to overcome

Members of the Provisional Committee for Managing the Producing Region’s Oil Revenues at their monthly coordinating session

The status of CPGRP appears to be of universal concern in the oil producing region. The sticking point is the autonomy of the committee and the leeway it should have to accomplish its mission.

This point, raised by civil society as an impediment, is also expressed by the president of CPGRP as one of the difficulties still faced by his committee.

According to Mr. Milengar, the system for managing the five percent funding remains highly centralized. To justify the delays encountered in finishing some of the projects and the lack of visibility of the actions, the president explained that the five percent funding is managed in accordance with central public accounting procedures, thus slowing down CPGRP operations related to the rapid mobilization of resources.

This is particularly true in the management of competitive bidding. Since the CPGRP manual of procedures is now available and the Permanent Secretariat is operational, some members of the committee are calling for adherence to the procedures set forth in this manual. The presence of specialists at the Permanent Secretariat – one in procurement and one in infrastructure – should be enough to justify the capacity of CPGRP to assume responsibility in this area.