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Chief urges government to include technocrats on CDF projects
Mpulungu, February 9, ZANIS —– Senior chief Tafuna of the Lungu speaking people of Mpulungu has appealed to the Ministry of Local Government and Housing to reconstitute the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) Committee to include technocrats instead of just politicians and community leaders.
Commenting on the on-going debate in Mpulungu district on how Councilors at Mpulungu district council have allocated the CDF monies, Deputy Chief Tafuna, Cosmas Sikazwe Tafuna said the move will limit and reduce the influence of politicians on the fund.
Councilors at Mpulungu district council have come under heavy criticism from various stakeholders and members of the public, on what they have termed, unfair and wasteful distribution of CDF.
The Councilors have come under attack for giving money to segmented smaller projects instead of bigger projects that the community believed could have made a huge impact and stood the test of time.
Chief Tafuna has also asked the ministry to change the guidelines to compel the council not to ignore technocrats’ advice and approve projects that technocrats believed were not feasible.
He said the fact that Councilors went ahead and disregarded technical advice from the District Development Coordinating Committee (DDCC) and approved segmented projects for the 2012 CDF funding meant that all the system was prone to abuse.
“We now have no doubt in our minds that this decision was coated with vested interests of the Honorable Councilors…..so to halt future hijackings, let the CDF committees be constituted to include technocrats and let’s also have new guidelines,’’ Chief Tafuna stated.
He said the Councilors should have taken a leaf from Choma Municipal Council who agreed to spend their CDF on graders, machinery which he said would go a long way in assisting the community involved.
Councilors in Mpulungu have resolved to spend CDF on over 73 projects some of which are costing as low as KR 5 000 with the highest getting an allocation of KR 40 000, from the allocation of KR 1million of CDF coffers.
