Director of Ayaba Hotel Interrogated for 7hrs

By Cassimania in Bamenda

Ayaba Hotel in Bamenda, a one-time enviable citadel of tourism in the North West Region of Cameroon is wallowing in the gutter as its Director Zacharie Doume has confirmed to journalists that he was interrogated by elements of the judicial police for 7 hours for allege mismanagement error. Zacharie Doume who was appointed director of Ayaba barely a year ago has been under fire from the day that he transformed part of the land reserved for its expansion into an empty poultry farm and a plantain plantation. Talking to the Press today December 25, 2013, the Director also confirmed allegations that the workers of the hotel had petitioned him for obnoxious practices and mismanagement of revenue. More so, the director is being accused of managing the hotel as if it were a personal property and not a public institution with accountants, auditors, etc. To authenticate some of these allegations raised by Ayaba workers, Zacharie Doume who summoned for a public auditing with the Press was visually unable to present a balance sheet of his income and expenditures for the past one year. This, expressionists say is indicative that Ayaba hotel has been transformed into a quarter store whereby the income and expenditure is known to nobody except the owner.

When quizzed by this reporter whether he could give a vivid account of how much has been generated and how much has been spent, Zacharie Doume rambled with words without pronouncing any figure but went further to announce how when he took over the management of the hotel with accrued debts estimated over 36 million FCFA.  To the Director, “everything that comes in is spent for repairs and renovations” but as to how much came in as income and how has been spent remains a misery only known to the director.

 Harping on a petition which ignited the police interrogation, the Director of Ayaba, castigated the move by his colleagues, adding that he was shocked to discover that he is surrounded by goats in sheep skins. He confirmed haven set up a poultry farm and a plantain plantation of 100 suckers outside the hotel gate which he said was formerly a hide out for bandits. However, insinuated that the he has invested a lot in transforming Ayaba from the kitchen right down to the night club, up to the rooms and down to the garden making the hotel fit to contest in any competition nationwide.

 It should be recalled that in December 2010 during the celebration of the 50^th Anniversary of the Cameroon Army in Bamenda, the state pumped in over 520 million FCFA for renovation work and today, much is being echoed about renovation work as if the funds disbursed from state coffers ended up in private pockets. He even revealed that when he arrived Ayaba, 25 workers of the hotel were still earning a merger salary of 25.000 FCFA per month and he had to raise their salaries to 28.000 FCFA and since January 2013, the salary of the 25 workers were doubled to 50.000 FCFA. Besides that he also revealed that all Ayaba workers are registered with the National Social Insurance Fund-CNPS. Yet when contacted, the workers say they have not had a dime increased on their monthly pay package.

(UP Next: The Accusations against Zacharie Doume, Director of Ayaba)

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