Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) is concerned by the underperformance and major governance weaknesses in the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) programme as highlighted by the Office of the Auditors General in the 2023 CDF Audit. Notably, less than 42 percent of the available funds for Community Projects were utilized and the entire programme only managed to spend 52.9 percent of the total funds provided by the Government. There is need to reevaluate the political motive for increasing the CDF allocation each year, as it is clear that many constituencies and local authorizes lack the capacity to utilize the funds.
TI-Z has finalized a detailed analysis of the results contained in the Auditor General’s Report on the Constituency Development Fund for the year ended 31 December 2023. We have conducted a comparative analysis of utilization of funds across the CDF components and a ranking of the performance of provinces and constituencies with respect to fund utilization. Our analysis reveals that the highest utilization, of about 98 percent, was towards Administration while the lowest utilization of less than 42 percent was on Community projects. This raises serious accountability concerns as to why the administrators of the CDF are drawing funds for meeting regularly when there is minimal progress in implementing the core CDF activities.
Given the numerous governance weaknesses highlighted by the Auditor General, including ineffective monitoring, weak quality control processes, poor contract management, weak monitoring and accountability mechanisms, among others, the CDF programme is a leaking tap that needs urgent plugging. It is not justifiable to continue allocating more resources to such a programme as the majority of the public resource will continue to be misappropriated, embezzled and abused.
In terms of overall performance for total funds allocated to the Programme, North Western, Copperbelt, and Eastern Provinces were the best performers with utilization rates of about 58 For more details, get in touch with the TI-Z Communications Officer, Ms. Zanji Valerie Sinkala on zsinkala@tizambia.org.zm 1 percent, while Southern, Muchinga and Western Provinces have utilization rate of about 55 percent. Lusaka has a utilization rate of 53 percent while the other provinces, including Central, Luapula and Northern Provinces had utilization rates less than 50 percent. It was also notable that 8 out of the 10 provinces had utilization rates lower than 50 percent for Community Projects.
The top performing constituencies in terms of CDF funds utilization were Rufunsa, Roan and Lukashya, with all recording utilization rates more than 100%, and were followed by Nyimba and Luanshya Central, at more than 90 percent, and then by Chirundu Lufwanyama and Vubwi at more than 80 percent utilization of funds available. The least performers were Kaputa, Chilubi, Chawama, Chimbambilonga, and Kasama Central, with utilization rates between 20 and 30 percent, while Lusaka Central constituency only managed to utilize less than 15 percent of funds available. Although some constituencies are achieving higher rates of utilization, it is concerning that some constituencies in urban areas, where there is stronger institutional capacity, are recording very low rates of utilization.
In the wake of these findings, TI-Z calls on the government to reduce the allocation to the CDF going forward. Given the underperformance of funds and the numerous governance weaknesses highlighted by the Auditor General, there is little doubt if any that the CDF programme is a leaking tap that needs urgent plugging and there is no justification for the annual increases we have seen in terms of budgetary allocation to the programme. Continuing to increase CDF in the manner we have seen over the last four years will only serve to exacerbate the numerous weaknesses highlighted in the Auditor General’ report, and we therefore call on government to take immediate action to bring this rot to a stop.
Maurice K. Nyambe (Mr)
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
