Governments wants all CDF proposals submitted by August 30, 2022

By SENIYA Banda
Government has instructed all the local Authorities to ensure that all constituencies submit their Constituency Development Fund-CDF proposals for the whole year in all the Categories by 30th August 2022.
Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development Permanent Secretary Technical Services, Nicholas Phiri says this is to ensure that approvals for all the Constituencies are given by September 2022 in readiness for implementation.
And Mr. Phiri has disclosed that the Ministry has approved 30 Constituency Development Funds projects from the 63 Constituencies from 18 July to 5th August this year.
Speaking at a joint Media Briefing with Ministry of Justice Permanent Secretary Legal Services Mwenya Bwalya and Accountant General Kennedy Musonda, Mr. Phiri says the remaining 28 projects are being processed under the 10 working day turn around policy.
Meanwhile Mr. Phiri has expressed concern over the continued trend by some constituencies Development Funds Committees who are giving preference to old cooperatives at the cost of new cooperatives to benefit from the empowerment.

And Ministry of Justice Permanent Secretary Legal Services Mwenya Bwalya says government is addressing bottlenecks when it comes to the procurement process under the CDF.
Ms. Bwalya says the Ministry has designated State Counsels to help in the approving of contracts in order not to overburden the office of the attorney general which is mandated to do so.

And Accountant General Kennedy Musonda has disclosed that progress has been made to engage banks in the disbursements of CDF loans.