UNITED Party for National Development (UPND) says the time frame given for utilization of Community Development Fund (CDF) is too short.
UPND Kalomo Central Member of Parliament Harry Kamboni said the time frame given by the spending authority in the first quarter of 2019 was too short.
“We are told to spend the money between January and March 2019 which for me is a very short time frame,” Hon Kamboni said.
He said this will put pressure on the constituency planning committee because some of the projects require a lot of time to be planned and managed.
Kamboni also wondered whether the k150 000 given to Kalomo constituency was also catering for the other half that was not given last year.
The lawmaker said the constituency only received K75 000 as CDF last year which was not enough.
Kamboni was speaking in an exclusive interview with the Star news.
Meanwhile, Choma Central Member of Parliament Cornelius Mweetwa said the 2018 CDF was the fourth time the constituency had received funding in 8 years.
Mr Mweetwa said it was shocking that CDF was unpredictable in the way it was distributed and that some constituencies were not funded in the past years.
He said government needs to put a transparent mechanism in the way CDF was run.
Earlier, the Kalomo MP called on government to start giving relief maize to some areas of the country that were affected by hunger.
Mr Kamboni said there were some parts of the country especially in Southern province that were affected by hunger because of the droughts experienced last season.
“Am sure government is aware that some regions in the country are facing difficulty times in terms of food and we therefore call serious intervention,” he said.
Mr Kamboni’s call for relief food is shared by Chief Mungaila of Namwala who also called on government to provide relief maize to the people of Namwala.
Chief Mungaila said Namwala was already facing extreme hunger cases because of the poor farming season the area had in 2017.