NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 16 – A new report by the National Taxpayers Association (NTA) released on Monday shows that over Sh300 million disbursed to constituencies has been mismanaged.
Speaking during the public launch of the audit report that sampled 23 constituencies, NTA national coordinator Michael Otieno Oloo said the Sh136.4 million out of the Sh1.2 billion allocated to the 210 constituencies could not be accounted for while Sh170 million has been poorly utilised.
“We are looking at figures for 2006/7, significantly with an increase in the number of constituencies, we will have a much bigger loss; we are talking about half a billion shillings that is lost annually from CDF,” said Mr Oloo.
The report also looked at the disbursement and usage of the Local Authorities Transfer Funds (LATF), and established that out of seven councils investigated Sh99.3 million was unaccounted for while Sh1.8 million was wasted. Another Sh45 million was poorly utilised in the same period.
The audit which was conducted between July 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007 also calls on all Members of Parliament and local authorities to finish all incomplete projects and reduce by 100 percent shoddily built projects.
The association is now calling for the review of the CDF Act to allow constituents more ownership in the management of the fund.
“The role of Parliament should be oversight and not necessarily implementation which then creates a conflict of the various arms of government because this will mean that they might usurp the responsibilities of providing oversight to its self which is very risky,” he said.
In the performance ranking, Changamwe represented by Ramadhan Kajembe emerged the best having accounted and managed all of its Sh52.1 million shillings.
Langata constituency represented by Prime Minister Raila Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki`s Othaya came in 19th and 7th in the performance ranking with Langata failing to account for Sh9.7 million out of the Sh24.5 allocated while Othaya could not account for Sh185,000 out of Sh77.7 million allocated.
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