CDF EXCITEMENT FADING AWAY
…halfway into the year nothing we can point at – Siatubotu
By Ben Mbangu in Choma
THE Voice organisation says the delay in actualising “real decentralisation” process in the utilisation of Constituency Development Fund (CDF) will affect the intended purpose of empowering young people.
In an interview, The Voice executive director Faith Siatubotu wondered why it had taken long for young people to access the funds when they had formed and registered cooperatives as instructed.
“The delay in actualising real decentralisation process in the utilisation of Constituency Development Funds is defeating the intended purpose of empowering young people with funds to do projects to enable them create employment for others, and bring about development in their respective wards and constituencies,” she noted.
Siatubotu observed that the excitement about CDF was slowly fading away.
“When the President [Hakainde Hichilema] made a pronouncement on the increase of CDF to K25.7 million per constituency, his intention was to take the money to the people and people were very excited about this because it was the first time in history that a constituency was allocated that much. However, the excitement is slowly fading because the purported decentralisation of the CDF has not been realised. The instructions on how the money will be put to use in every constituency are coming from Lusaka meaning we are still under the central control system,” she argued. “Where is the problem? We have gone halfway of the year and there is still nothing we can point at that has been realised out of CDF. The young people were advised to register companies and cooperatives in order to benefit from the same, but there has not been proper or enough sensitisation on how to apply for funding under CDF. Not even sensitisation on how to apply for bursaries! There is not enough time left because the year will soon be ending and the young people would still not have anything constructive to do to elevate their livelihood.”
Siatubotu wondered why implementation of projects and access to funds had taken so long.
“The young people have registered cooperatives and companies as instructed, then what? Why is it taking so long to see implementation? Do the people mandated to handle CDF have vast knowledge on how to go about it? Why are the funds decentralised yet the instructions still centralised? Has sensitisation in rural areas been done? When will there be actual decentralisation even in instructions so that we see progress? There is no decentralisation if instructions and control are still centralised,” said Siatubotu.