CDF: MPs to award themselves Sh4.97bn
A sitting of the National Assembly. Members of Parliament have said they will allocate Sh4.97 billion to the National Government Constituencies Development Fund in the supplementary budget
Members of Parliament (MPs) have said they will allocate Sh4.97 billion to the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) in the supplementary budget to clear arrears the National Treasury owes constituencies.
The NG-CDF board last year said the Treasury was yet to release arrears of Sh4.97 billion relating to the financial years 2014/15 (Sh2.3 billion), 2013/14 (Sh2.13 billion), and 2011/12 (Sh541.8 million).
But the National Assembly’s Committee on Finance and Planning on Thursday said it would allocate the money to the NG-CDF board for disbursement to constituencies, which are under pressure from pending bills.
The committee was meeting officials from the State Department of Planning and government agencies under it to scrutinise their proposals for the budget for the financial year 2022/23.
MPs said they were having a hard time paying contractors and suppliers for work done and supplies made owing to the arrears that have not been paid by the Treasury just months to the August 9 General Election.
The MPs said that the delayed release of funds to the CDF kitty could seal their fate in the elections.
Kitui Central MP David Mboni, who chaired the committee, said constituencies have a funding shortfall of Sh11 billion. He said that this has affected the implementation of key CDF-funded projects.
“We have a shortfall of Sh11 billion. We are going to allocate Sh4.97 billion in the supplementary budget to clear CDF arrears,” he said.
The Treasury allocated Sh41.7 billion to NC-CDF in the financial year ending June 2022.
Each of the 290 constituencies was allocated Sh137 million for development projects.
The MPs also questioned why the NG-CDF board was not allocating money for uncompleted CDF-funded projects.
But NG-CDF board chief executive Yusuf Mbuno said this would leave a funding shortfall as the Treasury had not been allocating additional funds to complete projects in previous years.
This comes as a bill in Parliament seeks to double allocations to constituencies from 2.5 per cent of the revenue collected to at least 5 per cent.
The 2015 NG-CDF Act requires the fund to be allocated at least 2.5 per cent of the revenue collected in the financial year, and that money appropriated to the fund should not be less than what it was allocated in the previous year.
“Section 4 of the National Government Constituencies Development Fund Act is amended by deleting the phrase 2.5 per cent and substituting, therefore, the phrase 5 per cent,” says the bill sponsored by Butere MP Tindi Mwale.