By NATION REPORTER
GOVERNMENT has clarified the concerns surrounding the errors contained in the K11.3 billion supplementary budget, which was presented and unanimously passed by Parliament on Friday last week.
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Dr. Musokotwane has explained that the case of the K298 million supplementary budget was a provision for only one component of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) which is under Community Projects and not the entire CDF projects.
Dr. Musokotwane stated that a total sum of about K4.4 billion was allocated to CDF, for all its three components, which are Community Projects, Youth, Women and Community Empowerment, and Secondary Boarding School and Skills Development Bursaries.
Speaking at a press briefing in Lusaka, regarding the issue that arose from parliament and now to the general public, Dr. Musokotwane revealed that the Community Projects components had a provision of about 2.7 billion kwacha, of which the 298 million kwacha was added.
He said this was out of the remaining funds from the provision for community projects for last year which was not utilized, attributing it to slowness in the absorption of CDF.
He noted that instead of recalling the money to the treasury, a decision was arrived at to push it back to community projects in each constituency under community projects for this year.
The Minister hoped to restore public confidence in government planning, referring to the issue as a case of mere misinterpretation and not an indication of inaccuracies in the budget.
And the Minister noted that the government is in a hurry to push development to all parts of the country through the successful implementation of the CDF. He noted that following measures to identify the challenges associated with implementation of CDF, the government is putting in place various initiatives to streamline the implementation of CDF projects so that the development gap between rural and urban areas is bridged.
Dr. Musokotwane was displeased with the low utilization of funds, due to issues of legal provisions, delays in approvals and also the negative attitude by some council employees.
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