returns on how they used the money.

The fund will be increased from US$50 000 to US$66 000 this year and only those legislators that submitted their returns for 2010 will access the money.
Acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, Ms Virgina Mabiza, yesterday blamed ignorance on procedure for the low rate of submission and said they had embarked on a programme to train legislators on basic accounting procedures.

“It is expected from Treasury that there are supposed to be returns and initially the deadline was April 30, but we applied for condonation to extend it to June 30 after only about 70 MPs had submitted their returns from the over 200 that applied. For us as a ministry it was a signal that something was wrong that is why we came up with a plan to carry out induction workshops in all the provinces,” she said.

Ms Mabiza said they had completed the induction workshops in Matabeleland North and would be moving to Matabeleland South and Bulawayo provinces. She said while the failure by some MPs could be to hide fraudulent activities, the majority of cases were due to lack of knowledge of accounting procedures.
“From our assessments, it was mostly through ignorance but there are also exceptions where people kind of dilly dally for unknown reasons. We have our internal audit teams that will begin physical visits next Monday in various constituencies beginning with the Midlands province,” she said.

She said the visits were to check on whether the reports they have tallied with what was on the ground.
“We have received reports from many MPs on what they have done so the visits will check on whether that is true and at the end of the exercise we will produce a report that will be circulated in Government,” she said.
Ms Mabiza, however, commended Mhondoro-Ngezi legislator Bright Matonga for the manner he used the money in his constituency.

“From the reports that we have there are some who have done well especially Mhondoro-Ngezi legislator Cde Bright Matonga.
“He has done a lot in his constituency for example they have sunk 66 boreholes, initiated repairs to seven schools and various income generating projects to assist women and other vulnerable groups,” she said.

The CDF was established last year with Government providing US$50 000 to legislators to carry out development programmes in their constituencies.
The fund is administered by a committee that includes councillors, headmen, and chiefs with Senators coming in as ex-officio members.

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