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{
    "id": 603800,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/603800/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 240,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Lessonet",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 67,
        "legal_name": "Moses Lessonet",
        "slug": "moses-lessonet"
    },
    "content": "the National Treasury, which is very supportive. The National Treasury has demonstrated its commitment to the CDF by disbursing a total of Kshs10 billion as of today, in this financial year. Some people tell us that there is a cash crunch in this nation. However, we are comfortable with the disbursement from the National Treasury. It has committed itself to disburse Kshs2 billion every week. By mid-December, we shall have received at least 50 per cent of the funding to CDF. The court has told us that the current CDF Act shall expire on 19th February 2016. The question on everybody’s mind is what will happen when we get to 19th February 2016 yet the National Treasury will not have disbursed 100 per cent of the funds to the CDF. I wish to inform Members that in this new Bill, we have created a transition clause to enable the current CDF board to continue transacting business even after 19th February 2016. We have also created a transition to allow all the projects which are now in operation, and which will not be complete as at that date, to continue being implemented through this new Bill. We also hope that by that time, we shall have new CDFCs. We hope that through regulations, which we should be able to finalise in December, each constituency will have identified new members of their committees in every constituency by 19th February 2016, so that business will continue without interruption. Members should be calm because disbursements will continue to flow to the CDF even after 19th February 2016. In this new Bill, we noted the challenges that constituencies face in administration. We know fund managers appear in constituencies and CDFCs once a week. Sometimes you may not even see them for a whole month. We have attempted to address that shortcoming in this new Bill. The fund managers shall be reporting administratively to the Constituencies Development Fund Committees at the constituency level. A fund manager will have to seek permission from the chairman to be absent from office. To be away from duty or on leave, a fund manager will have to file a leave application, which will have to be approved locally at the constituency level. That will force rogue fund managers not to disappear from their work stations. They have been recruited for each constituency. Sometimes you call them but you cannot reach them or see them. But now that they will be responsible to the CDFC, we believe that, that will force them not to disappear from their work stations. In this Bill, we have provided that the performance evaluation of those fund account managers shall also be done by the CDFC. In this Bill, that committee shall be called the “Constituency Committee”. They will be responsible for evaluating the performance of fund account managers. Through this Bill, we shall also be creating a provision to allow for citizen oversight of this fund. This Bill requires the Member of Parliament for every constituency to, every year, hold not less than four meetings which will be called “citizen oversight meetings.” They will be called by the MP because it is only the MP who can mobilise citizens to come to meetings. During that forum, the CDFC, through the MP, will make disbursements to projects being funded in that locality. It will be a requirement that all funding of projects through the CDF shall be done through that forum, to be convened by the MP, in the presence of the CDFC members, to give out cheques and receive all the reports from CDFC in terms of the performance of that fund. The CDFC or the Constituency Committee referred to in this new Bill shall be appointed through regulations. We have also allowed, noting the importance of the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC), that the constituency office is going to nominate two people to sit on the Constituency The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}