Home Affairs and Internal Security Minister Jack Mwiimbu says government is working on new Constituency Development Fund (CDF) Act and guidelines which will easy the implementation of CDF projects.
Speaking during a brief meeting with Councilors at Monze Civic Center on Wednesday, Mr Mwiimbu who is also Monze Central Member of Parliament acknowledged the difficulties posed by the CDF regulations.
He observed that most Councils had not exhausted the money allocated in the first quarter due to the regulations and that once the new CDF act and guidelines are in place things will be a lot easier and quicker to implement.
“I’m also aware of the difficulties which we are encountering pertaining to the management of CDF. We have looked at those issues and we hope that when Parliament meets in February next year a new CDF act and guidelines will come out to ensure that regulations are not difficult to implement. I know that even now the money is there you are failing to finish it. It is not because of your fault but its because of the regulations that are there. We hope that that is going to be done soon,” he said.
And Mr Mwiimbu said the challenges surrounding FISP has been resolved and farmers will receive their inputs next week.
“The other issue is that we have had complaints from members of the public and farmers pertaining to FISP, I hope that before the end of the week they will start giving out the fertilizer as all the issues that were causing the delay have been sorted out.” He said.
He explained that some of delays in the delivery of farming inputs were caused by the cleaning of the system to ensure that the right people received the inputs as opposed to what was happening in the previous government were individuals were appearing twice in the system hence receiving double the amount of inputs.
On infrastructure, Mr Mwiimbu said that there is a directive from the Republican President Hakainde Hichilema to ensure that all schools and clinics had flushable toilets and running water as a minimum standard.
He said no school or clinic should have pit latrines but that the basic standard of any public infrastructure should be running water, flushable toilets, and solar systems were electricity is not accessable.
He added that all clinics should have a small maternity ward to ensure that mothers do not travel long distances to access maternity services.
The meeting was attended by all Councilors, CDF committee chairpersons, the Council Chairperson and Council Management.
