THE Ministry of Local Government and Housing says it will no longer be responsible for disbursement of Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and local authorities will now be getting their allocations directly from the Ministry of Finance.
The measure is aimed at curbing misappropriation and abuse of public funds following the alleged fraudulent withdrawal and diversion of K1.3 million 2013 CDF allocation for Rufunsa District Council by seven officials at the Ministry of Local Government and Housing.
Ministry of Local Government and Housing permanent secretary Stanford Msichili said this on Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation’s (ZNBC) Radio two Government Forum yesterday.
Mr Msichili said the measure is with immediate effect.
“Because of the Rufunsa CDF money which was misappropriated by some officers at our ministry, we have decided that the ministry will no longer be handling CDF. It shall be paid directly to the constituencies from the Ministry of Finance,” Mr Msichili said.
He said, however, that this does not stop the Ministry of Local Government and Housing from following up shortcomings in the utilisation of CDF.
Mr Msichili said Government is concerned about people’s negative perception of the administration of CDF and that it is working hard to clean its image.
“The perception is that we are corrupt and we have to change the perception and citizens have to help us so that our service delivery can be improved,” Mr Msichili said.
He is also concerned that Zambia has a housing deficit of two million.
Mr Msichili said Government does not have the financial capacity to construct houses for everyone but it is mandated to create an enabling environment to enable citizens intending to acquire real estate through the Zambia National Building Society (ZNBS).
“Government’s resource envelope is not enough to take care of all our housing needs and other infrastructure developments that the country may require,” Mr Msichili said.
He said the answer lies in Public-Private Partnerships and the initiative is paying off.
“We are also looking forward to a time when public servants can benefit from such programmes so that they do not retire as paupers,” Mr Msichili said.
He also said the ministry is overwhelmed by service delivery due to an increase in population.
Mr Msichili said there are a number of institutions that want to construct housing units but are constrained due to shortage of land.
He appealed to local authorities to make land available for such developments.
He also appealed to service providers to provide services in new areas that are being opened up.
“What has gone wrong in the past is that people have been allocated plots but certain services have not been provided and they have found it difficult to develop their plots,” he said.
Mr Msichili said service providers should be coordinated so that all services are available in areas where people are carrying out constructions.
Mr Msichili also said there is urgent need to revamp the inspectorate to monitor areas that are being developed without the consent of local authorities.
He said this will prevent illegal structures and unnecessary demolitions.
Mr Msichili said the ministry does not take pride in demolishing structures.
If I were to use my analytical research skills, I’d say Rufunsa issue has been used as a smokescreen. How does the failure of 1/150 constituencies qualify a transfer of management? Was that misuse widespread? If not, why not deal with the culprits in this isolated case? Questions abound.
@Kakolwe,i dont know what country you are in but here in the US,one incident can result into laws being formulated.For instance,a motorist in one state hit some school kids that had just got off a school bus and were crossing the road.After that incident,a law was passed country wide for motorists to stop both ways,when a school bus is dropping kids.It is better to use that one incident to avoid future similar occurrences.
@zamcab, you are right. In Zambia there is nothing like “one too many”; it appears that is a population that works on a weight scale based entirely on a “past 50% before action”. It is small wonder that a lot of things in that country are allowed to fester and run out of control before measures are implemented. If kakolwe is representative of what obtains in Zambian civic leadership it is not surprising there are so many funny things being allowed to go on and on and on…
Agree entirely, maybe Rufunsa is just a tip of the iceberg and there has been corruption to the core in handling CDF through out the country.
Where was the Permanent Secretary himself, when these funds were being diverted?
what about the salary grants? They also go through Ministry of Local Government.