LINYANTI – The president of the Association of Regional Councils, Warden Simushi is hopeful the long-awaited Constituency Development Fund Bill, which was tabled in Parliament over eight years ago, will soon see the light of day.
Speaking during the handover of three electrical transformers for Linyanti constituency, Simushi said he is particularly worried that the long-awaited Bill, which has collected dust for years, despite many political leaders citing its importance as far as community development is concerned.
“The association was spearheading the constituency development fund in this country. It was supposed to passed by Parliament but that draft Bill is still hanging in the air. We don’t know where it is but I will make a follow up. If that Bill could be passed in Parliament, our people could not suffer much. We have pertinent issues. For example, if a borehole pump is broken, you take little funds from the constituency development fund and buy another submersible pump. In the absence of that, you will be pointing fingers at a poor councillor who doesn’t have funds at their disposal. I realised the community think if they elect a councillor, that councillor have money in his pocket. That’s not true. I will keep talking and I will not run away from the reality,” he said.
According to him, it’s sad when ministers come to the regions, they question why things are not functional and send communities to councillors.
“It’s not fair. We rely on line ministries for infrastructure development. That is why we are pushing for constituency development fund to be endorsed by Parliament,” he said.
He cited that in other countries such has Zambia, the development fund is working properly to solve community needs.
Further, he defended the Zambezi Regional Council that it is not true that it returns funds to Treasury while communities are in need of development.
“We did not start this project today. Some councillors say they didn’t get money. We have provided all eight constituencies with N$400 000. So, it depends on that particular councillor on how you utilise the money given to you. If you don’t utilise it in a proper manner, your community will turn against you. So, honourable Kabunga has opted to put up these three transformers. It was a brilliant idea. As long as our communities are benefiting from the little cents we have. As a regional council, we normally equalise funding. People sometimes say this constituency got more money than others but it’s totally a lie. If we are given N$1 million, then we are going to divide it by eight constituencies. Whether you buy livestock, put transformers, drill boreholes, or agriculture. So it depends from that councillor how the money be utilised and that’s how it operates.
Kabunga applauded the Zambezi Regional Council for the continued development plans towards the community.
He said poor governance can lead to project delays, poor communication and poor service delivery.
He called on the Linyanti community to take care of the newly installed transformers for future generation to use, which cost the constituency about N$238 000.
According to him, through the chief regional office, the constituency managed to secure an extra N$38 000 to the N$200 000 availed equally to all eight constituencies. –anakale@nepc.com.na