Friday, March 29, 2024

About K5.1 million CDF funds for each Constituency released for the first quarter

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Government has released K805 million for Constituency Development Fund for first quarter for 2021.

Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Gary Nkombo announced that the Treasury has ok March 30, 2022, released a total of K805 million of the Constituency Development Fund-CDF.

Mr Nkombo said the amount which is for the first quarter of this year, will be shared among all the 156 Constituencies countrywide.

He said that the funds released are earmarked for various community projects, youth and women empowerment for the first quarter of this year.

Mr Nkombo said, of the K805 million released, each Constituency will receive K5.1 million for the first quarter to enable them implement various developmental projects.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development Permanent Secretary Wisdom Bwalya announced that each constituency has been allocated over K6 million for the first quarter.

Mr Bwalya made the announcement when he closed a virtual workshop on CDF Guidelines orientation for provincial Permanent Secretaries and provincial government heads of departments today.

“Let me at this stage make a mention that government has finally released the funding for the first quarter to the tune of K6 million plus for each every constituency in the country, we are talking of 156 constituencies,” Mr Bwalya said

Mr Bwalya disclosed that all the councils will receive the money in their accounts by tomorrow, with those who are banking with ZANACO starting to receive the money this afternoon.

“As a Ministry we are doing our part and some of the districts that are dealing with ZANACO should be getting funds this afternoon,” he said.

The Permanent Secretary further appealed to provincial permanent secretaries to ensure accountability of the funds and warned the councils against laxity in the procurement process of developmental projects.

“My appeal to the permanent secretaries is that let us keep an eye so that these funds are prudently utilised,” Mr Bwalya said.

He also noted a challenge of slow utilisation of funds as something that should not be allowed.

“The challenge that we are likely to encounter, Provincial Local Government Officers, is to allow laxity on the part of local authorities of funds not being utilised and thus denying our people the much desired development,” Mr Bwalya said.

He warned that such laxity shall not be forgiven as it will deny the people of Zambia the development they desire.

“And I think we will not be forgiven for this because for a long time people have been crying for this development,” the Local Government Permanent Secretary said.

“My appeal is to everyone that is involved in this process to ensure that we speed up the process, project should be expeditiously implemented, taking into account the need for accountability,”

He also urged provincial Permanent Secretaries to provide strict oversight in the utilisation of the CDF funds as they are meant for the public.

“I thought I should make a mention and appeal to provincial permanent secretaries, who provide oversight at provincial level. These funds, especially for local authorities, they belong to the public, councils are just there as managers of these funds under the eyes of the Provincial Local Government Officers,” Mr Bwalya said.

16 COMMENTS

  1. Pardon me. Which is which? K5.1 million per constituency as announced by the minister or k6 million per constituency as announced by the permanent secretary? The difference of k900’000 by 156 constituencies, is just too much. Can either one of them clarify this differences in the allocation and where the difference is going to be used for?

  2. Sean Tembo and Emmanuel Mwamba were all over the media criticising the first release of K650,000 per constituency as too little to make an impact. It was always uninformed criticism because government cashflows are not a fixed amount but fluctuate as is the case with everyone. Bad news for the UPND government always makes Tembo and Mwamba’s day. As such cash releases and budget discipline start making an impact, the two gadflys should become politically irrelevant.

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  3. This is a very positive development. Members of the public must be vigilant and monitor progress on the projects. This installment is a good test to see if systems put in place are robust enough to respond to this new responsibility. It’ll be the first time some officers will be handling this kind of money. If you see your councilor begin to come by taxi everyday just know that there’s a financial leakage somewhere. Immediately blow the whistle. Don’t them chance to abuse these funds. When you see junior officers begin a lavish lifestyle just know that there’s a financial leakage somewhere. It’s easy to catch a Zambian, you don’t even need the Auditor General. Civil servants don’t sit in their offices when they have money

  4. Thank you, but if CDF is the one that is supposed to do everything is constituencies, will we have have things like tarred roads? I know that local Govt now has nothing to do with community development but communities will have to utilize CDF. All you have done is shift things around and no much value to be added. Before the Govt wld allocate only K1.6m and take responsibility for the rest. A km of tarred road cost about K2.2M and who will agree to use the CDF to tar roads? Will the people in charge of CDF agree to use this money to tar rds in Misisi or John Laing? It worked with then previous arrangement. Where will we be in 10 yrs time. I just congratulate areas in Western province and southern because they have more constituencies than the rest and more CDF benefit will go to the

  5. Thank you, but if CDF is the one that is supposed to do everything is constituencies, will we have have things like tarred roads? I know that local Govt now has nothing to do with community development but communities will have to utilize CDF. All you have done is shift things around and no much value to be added. Before the Govt wld allocate only K1.6m and take responsibility for the rest. A km of tarred road cost about K2.2M and who will agree to use the CDF to tar roads? Will the people in charge of CDF agree to use this money to tar rds in Misisi or John Laing? It worked with then previous arrangement. Where will we be in 10 yrs time. I just congratulate areas in Western province and southern because they have more constituencies than the rest and more CDF benefit will go to the

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  6. @ 4 NO MORE TARRED ROADS IN COMPOUNDS, Lets not only look to CDF, MP’s need to be in the forefront looking for private investments for thier respective constituencies too. Next thing you will be bewitching each other over CDF.

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  7. Systems should be put in place but if they are already established then should be strengthened as the only way we can sure that public funds will be put to good use and transparently accounted for.

  8. Taking developments closer to the people is good from unitary centralised to decentralized The funding being made available is also a good thing assuming councils reinvest back to central government for funding continuity without curtailment In all this the Central Gov must be proactive to monitor budgeting process approval allocation and implementation of funded projects under councils clearly distinguished from those to be pursued by central gov Allocations of funding a cross constinuency needs and wards must be clearly and we’ll justified in equity and optimization The minister as it is is walking ba very tight rope between acheiving and failure You also expect recurrent expenditures for councils to increase with reduced investments in critical capital expenditures in wards and…

  9. Constinuencies politics on allocation of funds in constituency wards and sections will impair most successes This also a bride between central and constituencies projects ownership monitoring and control This steming from weak procurement and capacity environments The good part is that Gov must moderate and use the local gov instruments to ensure preservation of capital and not in sweeping or cabbage collection consumption It dosnot also mean Gov will not implement utra mega infrastructure projects like schools and roads in constituencies nationally otherwise the ligitimate concerns here are valid and real So far only some hope is seen in some ministries but most the risk index is higher on failure Truth be told and unless you navigate and control Gov will find it difficult to achieve…

  10. You need to see growth also including those councils contribute even more to central gov because the risk of spread of monies in the Zambian economic development and structures to new from the central pool allocation to those entails that otherwise you run out of money with huge capital commitments and recurrent that would grow higher than growth in revenues in funded areas. We hope for the best to be realised and achieved better but for now we quietly observe the news on lusakatimes with comments

  11. PF cadres you were receiving 2.1 or is it 1.6million for the whole year,now you ve 5.1million for the first time since Zambia was born,even if people dont appreciate pls guys – give a round of applause to the UPND GRZ. Moreover this is jst a hint of the entire 21million CDF per constituency. Already 5million is 5 times what u ve been receiving since 1964. Now imagine what the remaining 15million will do to your lives at community-damn in jealous-you guys are rich people down but as ussual-Zambians are always blind people who cant see that they ve the greener pastures around them.

  12. The release of the money was what everyone has been waiting to see happen.If Zambia wasn’t a country ruled by reckless leaders who left huge amounts of debt,which has clogged the entire funding system in the government,the current government could have managed to send the all amount that the nation was told for each constituency about k25.7 million but due to the indebtedness of the nation to the IMF the 2022 budget could not be adequately funded.There was excessive borrowing under the previous regime which has left a bottomless abyss for the upnd government who have to struggle to fund activities at national level.So the only thing this government cam do is to release cdf in small installments because the budget was inadequately funded which will delay other things from being carried…

  13. Yesterday I pointed out that this K5million you are giving 500,000 people was Patson Daka’s weekly allowance in Britain. I was….

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