Jesuit Scholars Criticize Zambian Government’s Failure to Address Budget Loopholes

Fr. Muyebe said that the implementation of the fund is faced with challenges including lack of transparency, weak structures to ensure the money reaches the intended beneficiaries, political influence in the execution of the fund, and the lack of community participation.

He noted that there were weak mechanisms to monitor the database of the beneficiaries double dipping from CDF by belonging to multiple cooperatives and applying to numerous constituencies, and limited staff members at the Local Authority level to implement the fund.

CDF will continue to be hijacked by politicians if the challenges are not addressed, Fr. Muyebe said, adding that the situation would derail it from achieving its intended goal of alleviating poverty and improving the living standards and conditions of people in Zambia.

To improve on the implementation of CDF, Fr. Muyebe urged the government to “invest in the development of an integrated monitoring and evaluation system that captures data of all the CDF-related projects across all the constituencies in the country.”

He has also called upon the government to conduct “a comprehensive audit to establish value for money on all CDF resources allocated thus far.”

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“Set up a platform that encourages inter-constituency collaboration in the implementation of some projects such as purchasing and servicing of road construction equipment as well as encouraging cross-learning of good practices amongst the constituencies,” the JCTR Executive Director says.

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.