By Isaac Zulu
House of Chiefs chairperson says delays by some local authorities to disburse Constituency Development Fund (CDF) is making it difficult for the initiative to have a positive impact on the lives of people.
In an interview with Daily Revelation, Chief Chisunka, who hails from Luapula has pointed out that the delayed disbursement of CDF by local authorities is impacting [pp-logged-users] negatively on the implementation of CDF funded projects.
He said this is defeating the objective of the CDF which is to uplift the lives of people in communities.
“This CDF money is our money in communities. But this money is not impacting positively on the lives of people in communities. This is due to the fact that most councils are delaying the disbursement of Constituency Development Fund, which is making it difficult to implement CDF projects, especially big projects,” Chief Chisunka explained.
The traditional leader urged local authorities to expedite the disbursement of CDF funds to the intended beneficiaries.
He also noted that the requirement for cooperatives to apply online for CDF money is a hindrance to rural communities.
“Most people in rural areas do not have access to gadgets to use for online application for Constituency Development Fund. Let the councils speed up the whole process, if this programme is to achieve its objective of uplifting the lives of people,” he said.
And Chief Chisunka has described the procurement of CDF monitoring vehicles and the subsequent distribution of Zambia Police vehicles to all constituencies, as a milestone.
“For the first time we have seen that President Hakainde Hichilema and the New Dawn government have distributed Zambia Police vehicles to all constituencies. Just recently they distributed CDF monitoring vehicles. This is unprecedented and a great milestone. And I think, as traditional leaders, we commend the government for the increased CDF,” said Chief Chisunka.[/pp-logged-users]
Caption on the picture: Chief Chisunka with President Hakainde Hichilema at Community House
