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Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
At least 40 percent of returning Members of Parliament risk failing to access their share of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) after it emerged that they failed to account for the previous disbursements of $50 000. At least 100 out of 210 legislators retained their seats in the July 30 harmonised elections.
Parliament has since warned defaulters that they will not be able to access another round of CDF if they do not account for the money.
Processing of the CDF for the year 2019 had since began and at least 40 MPs could lose out if they fail to come clean on how they used previous disbursements.
This was said by Acting Speaker of the National Assembly Cde William Mutomba in the chamber last week.
“I wish to inform the House that in terms of Article 14 of the Constituency Development Fund Constitution as read together with Article 18 of the Accounting Officers’ manual, the Constituency Development Committees are required to submit their returns to Parliament on a quarterly basis. To date, only 62 out of 97 Members of Parliament who retained their seats have so far submitted or partially submitted their returns,” said Cde Mutomba.
“Consequently, all returning Members of Parliament who have not submitted their returns will not access funding for 2018 until they comply with provisions of the CDF Constitution and the Accounting Officers’ Manual. The CDF allocation for 2018 is now ready for disbursement.”
This follows tough conditions and guidelines crafted by Parliament aimed at safeguarding the utilisation of CDF after reports of rampant abuse of the funds had been unearthed by audits in previous years.
Some of the conditions included submission of minutes of an inaugural meeting of the CDF committee on how the money would be used.
MPs should also submit names of CDF committees in compliance with the constitution of the fund.
Application for the fund should be accompanied by curriculum vitaes of committee members of the CDF committee and an independent bank account with names of signatories.
The guidelines include the nature of development projects that could be funded and the involvement of administration of Parliament
Parliament adopted tough guidelines on the use of CDF as part of measures to enhance accountability and curb abuse by the legislators.
Government introduced the CDF to enable legislators to spearhead community development projects in their constituencies.
Parliament set up a management committee to administer the fund constituted by Deputy Clerk of Parliament, principal finance director of Parliament, director of research and counsel to Parliament.
Their duty is to manage the transaction of the fund from the ministry to the account of the constituency.
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