Title: “Transparency International Zambia Exposes Shocking Mismanagement of CDF Funds”
Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) has unleashed a scathing critique of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) program, following a blistering analysis of the Special Audit Report for the year ending 31st December 2023. The report, conducted by the Office of the Auditor General and analyzed by TI-Z, paints a disturbing picture of financial irregularities, corruption, and glaring incompetence in the handling of public funds at the local level.
Despite successive increases in CDF allocations, the analysis reveals that less than 42% of funds designated for community projects were utilized, with a staggering 53% of the total allocation remaining unspent. Shockingly, eight out of the ten provinces recorded community project fund utilization rates below 50%, and all ten failed to utilize even 60% of their total CDF funds.
Maurice K. Nyambe, the Executive Director of TI-Z, minced no words in condemning the state of affairs, stating: “It is deeply concerning that despite increased CDF allocations over the past years, many constituencies have struggled to effectively utilize these resources. This raises serious questions about the political motive behind the annual successive increases in budget allocations.”
TI-Z’s analysis highlighted three major financial irregularities: unauthorized changes to projects (ZMW9.4 million), failure to account for funds (ZMW8.3 million), and the most shocking failure to recover loans amounting to over ZMW254 million. Lusaka City Council stood out for all the wrong reasons, appearing in the top 10 councils for all three financial irregularities, with Mongu and Isoka Town Councils not far behind.
Alarmingly, TI-Z noted a disturbing pattern the majority of councils failing to recover loans are located in the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) strongholds. This fuels growing concerns about political patronage, where elites potentially abuse the CDF programme for personal and partisan gain.
Nyambe did not shy away from demanding accountability: “We call upon the UPND administration to take action to eliminate the dominance of political elites in the CDF programme by encouraging broader and non-partisan participation of all citizens.”
In addition to financial mismanagement, the report revealed critical governance weaknesses, including ineffective budget monitoring, weak contract enforcement, and a lack of due diligence, which have led to abandoned projects and unspent funds. The Electronic Government Procurement (EGP) system, intended to enhance transparency, was also slammed for frequent technical failures and limited user capacity.
“The lengthy bureaucratic approval processes for large contracts have significantly hampered the ability of local authorities to implement community projects,” Nyambe noted, further emphasizing that construction-based projects were particularly affected by these procedural bottlenecks.
TI-Z’s bold call to action includes halting any further increases in CDF budget allocations until there is verifiable improvement in monitoring and institutional capacity. The organization has urged local authorities to share project implementation information with the public through community meetings, websites, and media platforms.
Nyambe concluded by reinforcing TI-Z’s mission: “We remain committed to promoting transparency, accountability, and good governance in the management of public resources. The government must take swift action in addressing the inefficiencies and weaknesses in the CDF programme to ensure it serves its intended purpose of fostering local-level development.”
The full 2023 CDF Audit Report is available on the Auditor General’s website. TI-Z has vowed to continue disseminating key insights and pushing for reforms to prevent further misuse of public funds.
The question remains will the UPND government rise to the occasion and clean up the CDF programme, or will political patronage and financial mismanagement continue to rob Zambian communities of their right to development?