EDITORIAL COMMENT: Govt must ensure there is no pilferage of CDF money Advocate Jacob Mudenda
Advocate Jacob Mudenda

Advocate Jacob Mudenda

Government has set aside $5 million to be disbursed to different constituencies as Constituency Development Fund (CDF). The $5 million will enable each MP to get at least $24 000 to fund development projects in his or her constituency.

The Speaker of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda on Tuesday urged the MPs to open bank accounts so that the CDF money could be transferred to the respective constituencies’ accounts. Advocate Mudenda however said the CDF constitution should first be adopted by Parliament. He said MPs should form committees that will oversee the use of the funds to enhance transparency. “If there is no committee in your constituency, there will not be any disbursement,” he said.

The allocation of money for CDF is a very welcome development given that there are projects or programmes in the different constituencies that urgently need funding. We are aware that Government has many competing priorities but has managed to raise the $5 million to distribute to the constituencies to fund either programmes or development projects that urgently need funding.

The money is not much and it is our fervent hope that Government will continue to review it as more resources become available. What is important is to ensure that the little money that Government has availed is used for its intended purpose, which is to improve the people’s welfare in each constituency.

This is not the first time that Government has allocated money for CDF. During the inclusive Government, CDF money was disbursed to MPs and most of them abused the money. Many of the MPs were arrested by the Anti-Corruption Commission for abusing the money but prosecuting them became a challenge because there was no legislation guiding the expenditure of the money.

Many of the MPs converted the money to their own use as there was no system of accounting for the money. We want to believe that Government has come up with mechanisms to ensure that MPs do not abuse public funds as what happened in the past. Putting a committee in place, in our view, is not good enough because MPs can still appoint individuals that they can manipulate to enable them to access these public funds.

There is therefore an urgent need for Government to establish a monitoring team in each constituency that receives progress reports on the expenditure of the disbursed money and also audit the books regularly.

This CDF money is not campaign money for MPs but intelligent MPs can use the money to fund important projects that they will use to market themselves come 2018.

Parliament has this time around come up with a constitution of the CDF which gives  guidelines on how the fund would be administered to avoid abuse.

Government should ensure that those MPs that decide to abuse public funds rot in jail. When people vote MPs into office, they are under the belief that these men and women given the mandate to represent them in the august House are individuals of high integrity whose conduct all the time is beyond reproach.

These men and women therefore deserve severe punishment if they betray the people’s trust. Government has an obligation to ensure that this time around, thieves don’t get away on technicalities as what happened last time.

We want to once again implore MPs to do their best to ensure that the little money coming their way impacts positively on the people’s lives.

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