Treasury release Sh33 billion to save CDF funds from grinding to halt

Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) Chief Officer Charles Ringera with North Imenti MP Rahim Dawood at the Meru Teachers Training College on February 15, 2019 during the institution’s 88 edition graduation ceremony. Ringera announced that HELB will in next year consider giving loans to the students in the Teachers Training Colleges. [Darlington Manyara/Standard].

The Treasury has remitted Sh33.28 billion to be disbursed to the 290 constituencies under the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF).

The cash injection will be welcome because most constituencies have run of money to initiate projects.

North Imenti MP Rahim Dawood (pictured) said his constituency was among these yet to get over Sh50 million for the financial year that ended on June 30.

“We are completely paralysed and most projects are in limbo since there are no funds,” Mr Dawood said yesterday in Meru town.

Each constituency was to receive Sh109 million for the 2018/2019 fiscal year.

“When we checked, only 17 out of the 290 constituencies had received their full annual allocation by last month,” said Dawood.

According to the NG-CDF website, by March, Voi and Cherangany constituencies were owed Sh99 million each while Kiharu was yet to receive Sh94 million.

Sources at the NG-CDF Board said they expected to make full disbursements in the next one month.

“The speed of spending determines how a fast a constituency will get its full entitlement. For a start, we won’t send a top-up to an area that had over Sh10 million in unspent funds. In other words, the absorption rate determines how disbursement rolls out,” said an official who requested anonymity.

Dawood called on the Controller of Budget to ensure that funds' disbursement was timely.