By Daily Revelation Editor
Good Governance and anti-corruption activist Reuben Lifuka says the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) is now being viewed as a “gravy train” to reward UPND cadres.
His comments come in the wake of demands by UPND officials in Milenge district of Luapula Province, to remove Council Secretary Liusha Inambwae over demands that they are not benefiting from CDF contracts, which they say should be given to them because they are ruling party members and would wish to channel some proceeds towards party funding.
The 2022 Auditor General’s Report on the CDF highlighted critical weaknesses in CDF administration, revealing how it had become a source of illicit enrichment for party cadres, citing Milenge where contracts were awarded to bidders who failed to meet the required technical or preliminary evaluation criteria, sidelining qualified and responsive bidders.
Clearly, the UPND cadres who are demanding for contracts so that they could use the same to run party affairs do not understand why CDF is there in the first place. They can’t differentiate between public funds and party funds. They think everything nikudyamo.
They have literally threatened to lock up the council secretary and have demanded the reinstatement of some officials who were transferred because ‘they worked well with them’. The poor council secretary is in Lusaka right now fearing to go back to his base in Milenge because of the threats from the cadres. He says he first wanted to have an audience with UPND national chairman Maoma before going to see the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Local Government and then the Local Government Commission. We have no issues with him seeking to meet the permanent secretary and those at the Local Government Commission. And we also have no problem if he wants to meet Maoma solely to complain about the misconduct from the cadres. But if he is here to discuss anything related with the CDF administration with party functionaries then Zambians should really get concerned because any party involvement with CDF issuance will just be indulging in the same misconduct we are denouncing.
The only word that should be heard from the UPND leadership is them coming out to denounce their members and announcing that they are taking disciplinary measures against them for attempting to create a syndicate through which they will profiteer from public resources.
Failure to take any disciplinary measures to demonstrate that the party does not condone such behaviour will show complicity and undermine the public trust in the government’s commitment to ethical governance.
What kind of a society are we becoming, where cadres should now dictate who should work in their areas, or that people who should work in their areas must undertake to fulfil their sinister demands? How different is this conduct from the one Hakainde President Hichilema and the UPND always denounce as the cancer of caderism which infected the country during the PF reign, but which they had managed to cure?
And these cadres even have the audacity to speak on record that they want the council secretary out because he’s not giving them contracts, and also that they want to have officials who were transferred brought back as they worked very well with them. Where are the police and other law enforcement agencies? We demand that they must actually arrest these cadres and have the council officials they say they were working with taken in for questioning.
While the idea of devolving funds to constituencies is welcome, this government was urged to ensure that robust mechanisms to protect public resources from exploitation by politically exposed individuals was first addressed. But they never did so and as a result all sorts of politically exposed person’s are now taking turns to feast on the public resources meant for the communities. Such a shame.
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By Daily Revelation Editor
Good Governance and anti-corruption activist Reuben Lifuka says the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) is now being viewed as a “gravy train” to reward UPND cadres.
His comments come in the wake of demands by UPND officials in Milenge district of Luapula Province, to remove Council Secretary Liusha Inambwae over demands that they are not benefiting from CDF contracts, which they say should be given to them because they are ruling party members and would wish to channel some proceeds towards party funding.
The 2022 Auditor General’s Report on the CDF highlighted critical weaknesses in CDF administration, revealing how it had become a source of illicit enrichment for party cadres, citing Milenge where contracts were awarded to bidders who failed to meet the required technical or preliminary evaluation criteria, sidelining qualified and responsive bidders.
Clearly, the UPND cadres who are demanding for contracts so that they could use the same to run party affairs do not understand why CDF is there in the first place. They can’t differentiate between public funds and party funds. They think everything nikudyamo.
They have literally threatened to lock up the council secretary and have demanded the reinstatement of some officials who were transferred because ‘they worked well with them’. The poor council secretary is in Lusaka right now fearing to go back to his base in Milenge because of the threats from the cadres. He says he first wanted to have an audience with UPND national chairman Maoma before going to see the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Local Government and then the Local Government Commission. We have no issues with him seeking to meet the permanent secretary and those at the Local Government Commission. And we also have no problem if he wants to meet Maoma solely to complain about the misconduct from the cadres. But if he is here to discuss anything related with the CDF administration with party functionaries then Zambians should really get concerned because any party involvement with CDF issuance will just be indulging in the same misconduct we are denouncing.
The only word that should be heard from the UPND leadership is them coming out to denounce their members and announcing that they are taking disciplinary measures against them for attempting to create a syndicate through which they will profiteer from public resources.
Failure to take any disciplinary measures to demonstrate that the party does not condone such behaviour will show complicity and undermine the public trust in the government’s commitment to ethical governance.
What kind of a society are we becoming, where cadres should now dictate who should work in their areas, or that people who should work in their areas must undertake to fulfil their sinister demands? How different is this conduct from the one Hakainde President Hichilema and the UPND always denounce as the cancer of caderism which infected the country during the PF reign, but which they had managed to cure?
And these cadres even have the audacity to speak on record that they want the council secretary out because he’s not giving them contracts, and also that they want to have officials who were transferred brought back as they worked very well with them. Where are the police and other law enforcement agencies? We demand that they must actually arrest these cadres and have the council officials they say they were working with taken in for questioning.
While the idea of devolving funds to constituencies is welcome, this government was urged to ensure that robust mechanisms to protect public resources from exploitation by politically exposed individuals was first addressed. But they never did so and as a result all sorts of politically exposed person’s are now taking turns to feast on the public resources meant for the communities. Such a shame.
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