Mist over k5bn CDF roll out

Mist surrounds the roll-out of the Reformed K5 billion Constituency Development Fund (CDF) with Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and Malawi Local Government Association (Malga) giving conflicting positions on status. While the ministry yesterday insisted that local councils have already been oriented on the new CDF guidelines, Malga says councils, which will play a central role in managing the fund, remain in the dark. In an interview yesterday, Malga executive director Hadrod Mkandawire said councils have neither received the guidelines nor been informed when they will get them.

“We are yet to be given the guidelines and do not have information on when they will be provided,” he said. But Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development spokesperson Chimwemwe Njoloma, in a separate interview yesterday, said local councils have already been oriented on the guidelines. She said the process started before the guidelines were shared with other stakeholders.

Njoloma said councils now have the guidelines and can start implementing projects under the Reformed CDF, noting that the necessary structures are already in place. “All the structures, be it the VDCs [Village Development Committees], ADCs [Area Development Committees] and others are in place. In fact, some councils have already started advertising projects,” she said.

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The Nation yesterday sourced an electronic copy of the guidelines. On the other hand, members of Parliament (MPs) and ward councillors are assigned oversight roles. Under the framework, VDCs, ADCs, Urban Development Committees (UDCs) and local authorities are classified as key actors in the implementation of CDF projects.

“The implementation of the CDF revolves around the agency and activism of local communities… The MP will be countersigning the constituency development plans which are submitted to local authorities,” reads the document in part. The guidelines further emphasise the need for citizens to own development processes and outcomes. In this regard, communities are expected to identify projects, monitor implementation, prevent abuse of resources, report fraud and ensure the sustainability of completed works.

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