PRESIDENT HAKAINDE HICHILEMA SHOULD TAKE A FIRM STEP ON THE COUNCILS THAT ARE HOLDING ON TO THE CDF FUNDS CAUSING UNCERTAINTY IN COMMUNITIES WHETHER GOVT IS FUNDING OR NOT …***
By Stembridge Sikalundu
The much needed development must be in tandem with time programs , what the money is supposed to be used for this year , projects must not be postponed to next year., because it will be expensive to do business and complete projects on time , when funds are equally disbursed and at the same time development must be seen to be happening , infiltrations by constituency development committees who are colluding with council officials may be a serious reason that demands punishable directives .
We all recall the pronouncements that were made by President HAKAINDE HICHILEMA with regard to the rigidities in the process of accessing funds , in my view 40% of the presidents vision is in the CDF allocations , because that is the best way of decentralizing resources for community development and allowing priority set ups by the people at local level , this is one of the best policies of our time , and having increased it from ZMK 1.6 million to ZMK 28.3 million and subsquent prospects of taking it to ZMK 57 million proves how committed the president and the UPND govt is doing to ensure there is equitable distribution of state resources which drive steady economic growth and development .
However much these efforts are being done by central govt ,some councils in the country have not been supportive to ensure these directives are adhired to for the people to see the much anticipated development in those areas , one of the scenes witnessed by the UPND SG MR BATUKE IMENDA takes a sad reading in SHIWANG’ANDU , govt should not wait for chiefs to complain , where one of the chiefs complained of slow or no development from the CDF funds takes a sad reading to hear that the councils are not releasing the funds for developmental projects.
These acts require stiffer action especially if most councils that are behaving this way are in areas of opposition strongholds , the impression will work against the govt because the opposition will take advantage to say such areas never recieved the CDF funds , it will be difficult for the UPND to argue this point , because there will be nothing to point at in terms of development , it is important for the president to set up a special emergence team , which should specifically inspect quarterly and directly submit or have audience with the head of state , random checks will not improve the efficiency which is lacking in most local authority instituitions .
Some constituencies are doing extremely well and the people are acknowledging this change of direction , however a lot is going wrong because of holding on to the funds with unjust reasons , ” BOMA IYANGANE PO “.. God bless mother Zambia .
I CRY ZAMBIA IS MY BELOVED COUNTRY