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"content": "919 former Minister for Finance. As a Member of the CDF committee, I feel that the Minister played an important role in the early stages of the implementation of CDF. On the same note, we have not got much co-operation from the current Minister for Finance, but I am happy to hear that he is willing. But I would like to know if that is the position of the Minister. On two occasions, the committee has invited the Minister to come and advise it, but on those two occasions, he neither showed up, sent apologies nor sent a representative. The decisions which were made by the committee were based on what the committee thought is the right way to go. Obviously, if the Minister for Finance is keen, then it is important that he comes and advises the committee. The issue of increasing the CDF funds has been talked about a lot. I am not going to over-emphasize on the need to increase the amount. We are willing as a committee, to hear from the Ministry of Finance about the position. But nevertheless, we should not over-look the fact that over 80 per cent of the population is based in the rural areas where the CDF funds are targeting. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, another issue that most members have not noticed, among the proposed amendments, is to ensure that funds which have not been spent by Ministries are directed to the CDF. The main reason is not to get the money coming from the Ministries but to encourage them to make sure that at the end of the financial year, they have spent the money. It was alarming that in the last financial year, over Kshs8 billion was returned to the Exchequer. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, why does the committee feel that the National Management Committee should be done away with? There are several reasons. The Government spends 97.5 per cent on the National Management Committee. Why should we have a National Management Committee to supervise the 2.5 per cent. The other main reason was the money being spent by the National Management Committee. In the 2004/2005 Financial Year, the National Management Committee, within a period of four months, spent Kshs55 million, out of the budget which was Kshs168 million. The following financial year, 2005/2006, their budget was Kshs310, and within the first eight months, they had already spent Kshs127 million. The National Management Committee has proposed a budget for the 2006/2007 Financial Year, to the tune of Kshs578 million. We felt that we have Ministries which deal with respective budgets and there are no national management committees to manage those Ministries. We thought that it is not necessary. We would rather have the CDF money transferred to another Ministry. The reason of transfer was frustration from civil servants within the Ministry of Finance. The committee, ever since its inception, with the exception of the Minister, faced very many frustrations. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, so, we recommend that we do away with the National Management Committee. We also need some clarity on the type of projects to be funded. The National Management Committee has been telling the constituency committees that you cannot buy land. But when you go to the Coast Province, for instance, if you cannot buy land, then you do not need the money because there is nowhere to spend the money. So, we have gone further and specified that you can actually use the money to buy land and even buildings. We have gone further and clarified that you can buy vehicles, other machinery and equipment like water pumps. But we also need to be careful and draw the line because we might end up spending a lot of money on Recurrent Expenditure. We also explored the issue of sports and cultural activities. Members have been contributing from their own pockets to finance these activities and it is very expensive. The constituency committees are actually executive. But for CDF to be able to function, we felt we need a co-ordinator, who would be the custodian of all records and bring returns. The same person could also be the AIE holder. With those remarks, I beg to support."
}