By Mercy Matonga:
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have called for strong measures to govern the management of Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
The call comes amid concerns of wanton abuse of the funds and at the back of the 2024-25 national budget statement that Minister of Finance Simplex Chithyola Banda presented last month where he announced a 100 percent increase of the CDF allocation.
In the next budget, the fund has been pegged at K200 million from the current budget’s K100 million.
Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency Executive Director Willy Kambwandira called for urgent review of control measures on CDF to prevent abuse.
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“There are no safe platforms for handling community grievances related to CDF projects or funds, as councils fear being reprimanded by politicians.
“Generally, CDF has been fraught with stories of abuse and sub-standard projects with no value for money.
“Sadly, district councils do not monitor and supervise CDF projects for fear of being reprimanded by politicians. You will also recall that a parliamentary report on the use of CDF implicated 20 MPs [Members of Parliament] in abuse, but no action was taken,” Kambwandira said.
He added that challenges in governance of CDF include noncompliance with procurement rules and public finance management laws.
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“Some MPs are single-handedly hiring contractors and procuring and storage of project materials. This has resulted in manifestation of sub-standard CDF projects across the country,” Kambwandira said.
In a separate interview, Human Rights Defenders Coalition Chairperson Gift Trapence said the major concern is lack of accountability in utilisation of the funds.
“If put to better use, CDF can change the lives of Malawians at community level if they implement viable projects.
“In some cases, there has been abuse in the use of the resources, especially by producing substandard work,” Trapence said.
He urged the Ministry of Finance to enforce the guidelines on project identification and implementation to ensure Malawians get value for money in CDF.
