Manyinga Town Council Chairman Henry Sakuwaha has advised the business community in the area to equip themselves with necessary documentations before being considered for local projects’ bidding.
Mr Sakuwaha says there is an urgent need for the Business community to have Statutory documents such as business or company registration, Tax clearance and registration and Workmen’s Compensation Fund , among others before they can be considered for various works in the area.
He stated that the statutory obligations will be the needed qualifications for any entrepreneur to be engaged in various constituency development fund ( CDF ) projects.
Finance and National planning minister Situmbeko Musokotwane, during his Budget address in parliament las Friday said the new dawn government has given K25.7 million CDF per constituency
Stating that the revised and upgraded Constituency Development Fund CDF is meant to benefit local people, Mr Sakuwaha urged local entrepreneurs ensure that they legally registered their businesses.
“It’s only when you have right documentation from PACRA,NCC,ZRA and other documentations that’s when most of you, local people will benefit from CDF projects,” he said.
The Council Chairman said that it is disheartening to see local projects like building a school being given to other people other than locals.
The new dawn government’s vision is to empower local people, to enable them develop their own communities hence increasing CDF allocation from K1.6 Million to 25.7 Million, he said.
The Council Chairman further implored the local business community to partner for them to be considered for bigger projects such as roads rehabilitations and bridge construction works.
“Once local people get these projects it means more income in local households, more employment opportunities for our local youths and development in the district, “Mr Sakuwaha added.
Meanwhile, a local businessman James Chikuta has implored the local business community remain united and support each other in times of need in order to expedite economic growth in Manyinga.
Mr Chikuta further commended the new dawn government for increasing CDF allocation and for making sure that local people participate in it’s implementation.
“As local businessmen and contractors, we are happy now that we have a role to play in developing our own communities, we are very grateful Mr Chairman,” Mr Chikuta said.
His counterpart Joe Luneta, has however advised government to prioritize water, sanitation and infrastructure development in the quest to develop the district.
Mr Luneta said most areas in Manyinga still lack adequate water provision, good sanitation and good infrastructure especially roads.
Dr Musokotwane during his budget presentation said a significant amount of money is now getting into communities for them to identify their priorities, make budgets and undertake the development programs that are dear to their hearts.
He said this means that certain tasks that were previously under the Central Government through the district offices will no longer be performed by them.
They will be undertaken by the Local Authorities working with the local communities through CDF, he said.
In Zambia supervisors don’t work, they conduct workers like choir. Look at that f@ool with his forward hands.
Workers are parents, treat them with respect idyots.
GRZ would do well to equip those local companies with basic project management skills …………
Don’t just throw projects at them then complain about shoddy or incomplete works later
whoever is giving a contract should not then go sale the contract to foreigners. it will defeat the whole purpose of empowerment
This government is a failure what do you expect from those projects nothing but just a waste of money, these responsibilities must be taken by the central government so that they are accountable to the Zambians , we need proper trained and qualified engineers to do proper professional works, and not those poor people who have no clue to what a contract means and values it carries.
I never expected to have such a poor administration in this government really what has gone wrong with the intelligence we saw during those campaigns .
It appears like they hired some people from the moon to come and campaign for them using falsehoods , and now the reality has manifested, they are running away from their tasks and placing them on some poor people whom they know will do nothing.
Corruption and theft reloaded and watch them disappear with the money…buy Range Rovers and top up on side chicks….this is the Zambian culture
K25 million might sound like a lot of money and some people are understandably excited about it. It should however be viewed in the context of the increased scope for its use. Classrooms, bridges, rural clinics, houses etc. Are now all to be funded from the CDF and not from central government. The allocation of the funds doesn’t take into account the population of the area or the existing levels of deprivation. From my perspective, this approach is not only unfair but it is also inequitable. How can Ngabwe with 11000 voters (cannot immediately access census data on population) be allocated the same amount as Chibombo with 102000 voters? There is a need for an equivalent of the Barnett formula used in the UK
GRZ should seek help, which would be really given by donner countries, especially Nordic nations, in training local business men at district level the basics of project management………
This help would be readily available, for free from the west , as it is for a far-sighted noble cause………
Too many doomsters on here. We have training institutes in all the districts, we can and should train our people. Also, every company must have a certificate from an engineeting board of zambia, that way we know that they have it in them to do the job they are contracted to do. Labourers build things, engineers are normally drinking tea on site in a container turned office. We need to equip the general labourer with basic knowledge.
At the moment the people with the knowledge to tap into this are the same MPs and councillors who are busy forming proxies through their relatives. …PF thieves are busy brainstorming how to steal CDF.
Hahahaha PF Bandits and UPND Bandits are salivating on this CDF….busy creating and registering fake companies kikikikiki and PACRA has now become super busy…..this is what we were talking about…just a continuation…have you heard about the Tourism Minister in Livingstone Mr Rodney……this is just the beginning of plunder and massive corruption…ALEBWELELAPO…..HH HAS FAILED
The call is timely but the sad reality is that most government workers are also suppliers and contractors to the same institutions that they work for. Unfortunately the ZPPA has failed to arrest this scourge. When it comes to award of tenders even those that aren’t profiled by ZPPA get awarded, so what’s the benefit of being on the ZPPA roll? I support the move to decentralize as it doesn’t promote grand corruption. If we had decentralization there’s no way 42 councils could’ve all bought 42 wheelbarrows at $1M each, impossible! ZPPA has let us down because if they were on top of things we couldn’t have lost that much money. They’re guilty
If 25.7 million CDF, is to be prudently utilized in real challenges that many Zambians encounter, then we will be safe but the TASK of monitoring has been placed in us community members to see how each Ngwe will and has been spent.