TITLE XIV. OF THE LOCAL COLLECTIVITIES
Article 208
The local collectivities of the Republic of the Congo are the department and the commune.
Other local collectivities may be created by the law.
Article 209
The local collectivities administer themselves freely by elected councils and within the conditions provided for by the law, notably in that which concerns their competences and their resources.
In addition to their own resources, the State grants, each year, to the local collectivities a consequent contribution of development.
All imputation of the expenses of sovereignty of the State on the budgets of the decentralized collectivities is prohibited.
Article 210
[The following] are of the competence of the local collectivities:
- the planning, the development and the spatial organization [aménagement] of the department;
urbanism and habitat; pre-school, primary and secondary teaching; basic health, social action and civil protection; the prevention, the reduction of risks and the administration of catastrophes; the environment, tourism and leisure; the sport and cultural action; agriculture, the livestock, fishing and pisciculture; the administration and finance; commerce and art craft; transports; the road [routier] maintenance; the budget of the local collectivity. The law determines equally the financial regime of the local collectivities as well as the fundamental principles of the territorial public function.
Article 211
An organic law establishes the conditions in which the State exercises its protection [tutelle] concerning the decentralized local collectivities, as well as the other competences to be transferred, not specified [visées] by this law.
