10 Dec 2015

The Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Mr Kenneth Matambo, says he is not in a position to state whether government is considering setting up a constituency fund.

The current planning and budgeting system, Mr Matambo said, followed well established procedures for allocating resources equitably and efficiently, adding that these procedures had served well over the years even in difficult times such as the global financial crisis.

“Our planning and budgeting system follows a bottom-up approach where projects are identified at grassroots level and incorporated into either urban or district development plans for implementation,” said Mr Matambo.

Furthermore, the minister said local authorities were given revenue support grants to meet their needs and "this was working relatively well."

Therefore, instead of establishing a special constituency fund, he said the government should rather empower Village Development Committees by capacitating them with the requisite skills necessary for identifying high value projects that would be taken on board during the planning and budgeting process.

“I consider our current budgeting system to be in good standing in terms of good governance, proper and prudent financial management and fair distribution of resources,” he said 

“In any event, if we were to establish a constituency fund, this would have the effect of reducing the budget allocation to the Domestic Development Fund, which is not desirable,” he added.

Nata/Gweta MP, Mr Polson Majaga had wanted to know whether the minister would consider setting up a constituency fund to facilitate and speed up some development projects as well as boost local economies. Ends