Written by Leonard Wamalwa 2012-05-13 16:18:00 Read 857 Times

Kwanza CDF chairman Jonathan Mutende in his office.

The Kwanza Constituency CDF committee has rubbished the recently released report by the National Taxpayers Association (NTA) over the utilization of Constituency Development Funds (CDF) in 34 constituencies across the country that had millions of funds lost. 

Led by the committee’s chairman Jonathan Mutende and fund manager Mathews Tanui, the committee members said that the alleged loss of funds are a fabrication by the association noting that all the projects funded by the committee had been completed well hence wonder how the funds could have been lost. 

"The NTA should have come on the ground and involved us in its findings by showing us the projects which they claim the funds had been lost or badly used or unaccounted for so that we can also follow up to trace the responsible people, but when they just release such reports to the media without involving the committees in charge then they are not helping the common mwananchi," the chairman told journalists in his office. 

In the report, Kwanza constituency is ranked at position 22 out of the 34 constituencies whereby out of the Sh.48 million allocated to the constituency in the 2009/2010 financial year, a total of Sh.9.2 million was said to have been either wasted, badly used or unaccounted for. 

Over Sh3.5 million was reported to have been badly used in the constituency during the financial year while over Sh.5.6 million was wasted and another Sh.50,000 was unaccounted for which is equivalent to 19 per cent loss. 

The chairman said that despite various challenges that are encountered at various stages of implementing the projects sponsored by the kitty, virtually all the projects had reached completion stages. 

However he acknowledged that the NTA team had earlier on visited the constituency on a fact finding mission but never came back to them to report their findings for any improvement or action needed to address the issues noted. 

Among the challenges that the chair noted included poor vetting of contractors picked upon to do the projects by the project management committees, variance in quotations of similar projects done in different parts of the constituency and the under-quoting of projects leading to the contractors seeking for more funds to complete the same projects. 

Trans Nzoia County has two constituencies named in the report. The other one being Saboti constituency that is represented in parliament by the Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs minister Eugene Wamalwa. 

The report indicated that during the mentioned financial year, Saboti constituency received over Sh.67 million of which a total of Sh.6.8 million was said to have been misappropriated amounting to 10 per cent of the money allocated to the constituency. 

The constituency, ranked number 14 out of the 34 constituencies used in the report and is said to have badly used over Sh. 1.6 million, Sh. 5.1 million wasted as Sh. 100,000 was said to have not been accounted for. 

However when reached for comment, the current Saboti CDF officials under the chairmanship of Reuben Makhino Waswa who is also the KNUT Trans Nzoia branch executive secretary were skeptical about the issues and declined to address journalists over the matter. 

However, the committee treasurer Mangwana Wa Musa spoke to West FM via phone that the current committee was not aware of the said funds as they came in office late last year when the report had already been researched and compiled.

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