having a moment witrh Minister of Transport Kapembwa Simbao whilst
Deputy Minister in the office of the Vice President Lawrence Sichalwe
looking on shortly before swearing in Ceremony at State House
yesterday 08-10-2015. Picture by ROYD SIBAJENE/ZANIS
Government is revising the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), Local Government and Housing Minister Stephen Kampyongo has said.
The current CDF guidelines were revised in 2006.
Mr. Kampyongo said government was consulting widely on the guidelines from the stakeholders.
He said this when he issued a ministerial statement in parliament today.
He said the ministry was now receiving comments from parliamentarians.
Mr. Kampyongo, who is also PF Shiwang’andu Member of Parliament (MP), disclosed that the draft CDF guidelines will be finalized after December 9, 2015, which is the deadline for receiving comments.
He has since appealed to the MPs to take advantage of this period and make submissions to the draft document.
But a number of parliamentarians in the house expressed disappointment that they were being consulted at the last minute instead of being involved from the initial stage.
The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was established by parliament in 1995 as a fund granted to constituencies to support micro-community projects and it was seen as a tool for reducing poverty in the country.
The ultimate goal is to use CDF to speed up development at community level by providing the much needed infrastructure such as roads, markets, schools and health posts among other pieces of infrastructure.
The Ministry of Local Government and Housing receives the funds from the Ministry of Finance and allocates them to the respective councils.
Meanwhile, government has got no plans to ban the importation of milk in the country.
Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Given Lubinda said in a ministerial statement in parliament today that the production and consumption of milk was very low in Zambia.
Imwe, there must not be CDFs. Put this money in the offices of provincial ministers. Provinces under which constituencies fall should be managed without partisan favors.
Imwe mudala mwati muchita understand CDF the point it was developed is to ensure that the funds released by central gov reaches the constituencies now if it goes back to provincial headquarters how are u going to facilitate development when you’ve already embarked on the process of decentralisation.