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Misuse of CDF money rampant, says new audit
Even as elections beckon, public money still went to waste on two in every five CDF projects undertaken by Changamwe, Nambale, Butula, and Machakos Town constituencies.
Taxpayers are losing millions of shillings meant for grassroots projects even as politicians fight to keep the Constituency Development Fund under their watch.
An audit conducted by the National Taxpayers Association (NTA) in 10 constituencies indicates that Sh92 million, or 13 per cent of funds allocated for projects in 2010/11, went down the drain.
The money was either embezzled, tied up in abandoned projects, or was not accounted for.
“The challenge is that the gap is widening as traditionally good performers continue to do extremely well while poor performance continues to dog public funds (use),” said Mr Martin Napisa, the NTA acting national coordinator.
In the run-up to the 2007 General Election, the 10 constituencies lost 24 per cent (Sh67 million) of the total CDF allocation.
Changamwe, run by assistant Environment minister Ramadhan Kajembe, tops the list of non-performing constituencies, having wasted Sh13 million or 41 per cent of its 2010/12 allocation in badly implemented projects.
The constituency lost Sh8.7 million, equivalent to 49 per cent of its total CDF funds for 2006/7 on ineffective projects.
Butula constituency has also spent Sh31.5 million, or 32 per cent of the Sh67.6 million it was allocated in 2010/11, on projects that were badly executed, abandoned, or are non-existent.
Machakos Town constituency, represented by Victor Munyaka, is listed as the third largest loser of public funds, having wasted 25 per cent of its 2010/11 allocation on ineffective projects.
Only Mvita and Eldoret North constituencies have not lost or wasted public funds in rolling out their development projects.
“Citizens have a role to demand timely execution of high quality projects from their CDF allocations,” said NTA chairman Peter Kubebea.
“Every time we reached out to constituencies and informed them of our intention to audit their projects, they tended to push everything off the ground including abandoned and ghost projects.”
The NTA audit says Sh2.9 million for construction of a dispensary at Otonglo market of Kisumu West constituency, and Sh1.8 million meant for rehabilitation of a nursery school in Westlands constituency, could not be accounted for.
The money was spent but none of the projects took off. Another common feature among the surveyed constituencies was the low uptake of CDF indicated by cash lying idle in bank accounts.
“We are seeing increasing cases of money already allocated for projects staying in banks without being used for a long period of time,” said Mr Napisa.
This latest revelation of waste of CDF cash is expected to harden the position of civil society and the Treasury which have been campaigning to remove politicians from running of the kitty.
CDF was initially allocated Sh1.3 billion to be shared among the country’s 210 constituencies. The allocation has grown steadily over the years, reaching Sh21.7 billion in the 2012/13 financial year.
A taskforce appointed by the government to advise on the future of the kitty recommended that politicians be removed from its management.
