Budget committee chair wants more CDF funding

Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament chairperson Gladys Ganda has asked Treasury to increase the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) allocation.

The committee says the fund is a key national budgetary investment that is transforming rural communities.

Ganda said this in Salima on Monday during a stakeholders’ conference on lessons from the Decentralised Public Finance Management Project.

The K190 million project, which was run by the Centre for Social Concern (CfSC), focused on empowering citizens to demand transparency in implementation of development projects such as CDF.

Each of the 193 constituencies annually gets K40 million as CDF, which is a tool for direct financing of small-scale projects. It was increased from K30 million during the 2020/21 National Budget.

Ganda said: “If you go to the constituencies, you will see that most of the developments are happening under CDF. You will be able to see a proper structure that has come through the fund.”

“In terms of value you would also notice that it is cheaper than a product coming under the District Development Fund, for example. Using that sample we feel that it is high time that the government puts more funding into CDF.”

Treasury spokesperson Williams Banda could not immediately respond to the proposal.

CfSC director James Ngahy said the project outcome has been that the communities have the drive to demand accountability in public community projects.

The four-month initiative, in which community leaders were empowered to monitor project implementation, was conducted in Machinga, Phalombe, Zomba and Mzimba districts.

“The results have been extremely good because we have seen community leaders being committed to monitoring the projects and raising queries where they suspect procedures are being flouted. “We would like to see communities monitoring projects. You cannot imagine that a water project in Phalombe is monitored by the central government from Lilongwe when some people on the ground, some with good knowledge in water business, are not involved at all,” said Ngahy.