ENHANCING ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY IN THE UTILIZATION OF CONSTITUENCY DEVELOPMENT FUND (CDF) WHAT I SHOULD KNOW

WHAT IS CONSTITUENCY DEVELOPMENT FUND (CDF) Constituency Development Fund (CDF) is public money and a tool for poverty reduction. It was approved by Parliament in 1995. This money is budgeted for in the national budget and today, CDF for each Constituency is at K130 Million. This money comes from the money that the government rises from taxes and investments and it was noted that in 2012, Tax Payers contribute about 72.1% towards government revenue . It is from this money that government seeks to reduce poverty and implement development by allowing communities to participate in at different processes of project identification and selection. The aim of CDF is to speed up development at community level and the Government of the Republic of Zambia has been disbursing CDF to constituencies for the past 18 years. This fund is sent to each Council by the Ministry of Finance and it is the council that has to report to the State and the people how this money is utilized in accordance with the law .