2009 disbursement of grants to councils delights Kazonga

2009 disbursement of grants to councils delights Kazonga
By Sututu Katundu
Wed 06 Jan. 2010, 04:00 CAT

LOCAL government minister Eustarckio Kazonga has said the disbursement of government grants to councils and other institutions under the ministry increased significantly in 2009 compared to the previous three years.

During a press briefing yesterday, Kazonga said this was the first time all the approved grants to councils had been released in full by the government through the Ministry of Finance and National Planning to his ministry compared to 2006, 2007 and 2008 despite the global economic downturn experienced last year.

“The government support in form of grants to councils is meant for strengthening their capacities in terms of service provision to local communities and to supplement their locally generated incomes in meeting their recurrent operational costs,” he said.

Kazonga said towards the end of last year, the government released a full amount of K110,320,000.00 approved by parliament in the 2009 national budget under his ministry.

“Additionally K21.4 billion will be released to 18 selected district councils as capital grant soon. I want to confirm that the bank process of transferring Constituency Development Funds (CDF) and grants which include recurrent and restructuring to constituencies and councils’ bank accounts was finalised on Monday, 21st December, 2009,” Kazonga said.

He directed all town clerks and council secretaries to check the receipt of the funds in their councils’ bank accounts maintained in various commercial banks countrywide.

Kazonga advised the local authorities to utilise the funds for deserving projects, programmes and activities in compliance with the local authorities (financial) regulations and the current CDF guidelines.

“The government shall not condone mismanagement of these funds and the law shall visit anyone found wanting,” Kazonga said.

And 67 out of a total of seventy-two councils in the country have submitted their annuals budgets of revenue, expenditure and capital estimates for 2010 to the Ministry of Local Government and Housing for scrutinisation.

The ministry’s directives and instructions which the councils adhered to include, among others, the prioritisation of their available resources to various programmes and activities in order to meet their set objectives and targets, only included estimates for capital projects with confirmed funding from council, central government or donors and incorporation of prudent revenue projections taking into account challenges faced in 2009 with a targeted own revenues of 75 per cent as well as adequate budgeting for recurrent expenses based on the available resources in 2010.

Effective this year, the Ministry of Local Government and Housing will distribute government grants to councils in accordance with the inter-governmental fiscal transfer system whose main objective is to enhance predictability and transparency in the disbursements of grants.

Meanwhile, K100 billion CDF has been budgeted for under capital estimates on the basis of the number of constituencies.
The provisions of the CDF has been increased from K600,000,000.00 per constituency in 2009 to K666,000,000,000.00 per constituency this year.

Kazonga said the CDF guidelines would be revised to take into account some of the challenges faced by councils in implementing the previous CDF projects and enhance accountability and transparency in disbursement of public funds.

“I therefore, want to inform the nation that I have approved the 67 annual budgets of revenue, expenditure and capital for 2010 with amounts totalling K3,860,068,718,708.00 pursuant to powers vested in me under section 39(1) of the local government act, cap 281 of the Laws of Zambia on 5th January, 2010,” he said.

The ministry has not received 2010 budgets from Livingstone City Council and Sinazongwe district council from Southern province, Mungwi district council in Northern Province, and Mansa municipal and Mwense district councils in Luapula Province.

Kazonga reminded the councils to ensure that an evaluation process of their performance was conducted by comparing the actual performance against the approved provisions.