ZICA President Cecilia Zimba Happy With Govt’s Move To Increase CDF
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By Fumani Mukobeko, Gift Simwambwa and Derrick Sinjela
ZAMBIA Institute of Chartered Accountants (ZICA) President Cecilia Zimba has paid special tribute to the United Party for National Development (UPND) Administration led by President Hakainde Sammy Hichilema for increasing Constituency Development Fund(CDF) from K25.7 million to K28.3 million per constituency.
Speaking at a fourth and last Quarterly Press Briefing for 2022, Ms. Zimba is happy that the resources allocated to CDF will include funds for development interventions for under-served communities, secondary schools, and skills development bursaries to be administered at constituency level.
However, flanked by ZiCA Secretary and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Communications Media Moses Chitoshi and, Ms. Zimba is disappointed that the utilisation of the CDF has not been satisfactory.
“The Government has so far released about 75% (K19. 3million) as at 8th November 2022 of the total allocated amount per constituency. However, utilization of these funds by Constituencies has been unsatisfactorily low, less than 10 percent of the released amount had been utilised as at 8th November 2022. The under utilisation has been caused by administrative challenges such as highly centralized approval processes required under the law (Constituency Development Fund Act), cumbersome procurement procedures and limited capacity in project proposal preparations, among others,” Ms. Zimba said.
Ms. Zimba has since challenged Government to speed up the amendment of the Constituency Development Fund Act No. 11 of 2018.
“In order to address these challenges, the Institute urges Government to expedite the amendment of the Constituency Development Fund Act No. 11 of 2018 to streamline the approval processes and give more decision making powers to the local communities. We have observed that while funds allocation has been decentralized, Government has not decentralize decision making processes. Further, all the guidelines relating to the management of the CDF funds will need to be simplified while capacity building in proposal writing and awareness in communities will also need to be undertaken,” Ms. Zimba implored.
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