Hundreds of millions lost in CDF ghost projects

By Morris Aron
Taxpayers lost over Sh394 million under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) in 34 constituencies and three local authorities audited by the National Taxpayers Association (NTA) in the last one year.

The report, which was released for the second year running, puts Peter Kenneth’s Gatanga constituency as the best managed, also indicated Thomas Mwadeghu’s Wundanyi constituency and Naomi Shabaan’s Taveta constituency as ranked highly in accountability.

Best performers
In Gatanga and Wundanyi constituencies, virtually all the CDF funds allocated for development went to their respective use after having being allocated Sh107 million and Sh59 million respectively.
In Taveta constituency, Sh450,000 could not be accounted for.

Dr Barako Dulacha (Left) of the Commission for Revenue Allocation and Peter Kubebea during a launch of CDF and Latf report on Monday.  [Photo: Wilberforce Okwiri/Standard]

Others that scored highly on the NTA scorecard include Joseph Nkaisserry’s  Kajiado Central where out of a total budget of Sh40 million, Sh1.1 million was termed as lost or unaccounted for.
In Kajiado South represented by Katoo ole Metito, only Sh1.3 million out of a CDF budget of Sh41 million could not be accounted for.

The NTA listed Marakwet East, Malava, Kibwezi, Naivasha and Kitui Central constituencies as the areas where most of the CDF funds could not be accounted for.
In Linah Jebii Kilimo’s Marakwet East constituency, of the Sh30 million earmarked for CDF, almost half of the money could not be accounted for, was badly used or plainly wasted.

In Malava Constituency, 44 per cent of the Sh116 million CDF money could not be accounted for while Naivasha constituency, a total Sh26 million was lost under the CDF compared to total disbursement of Sh68 million.
Otieno Kajwang’s Mbita constituency was ranked highly for ‘ghost’ projects.  In one such case, billboards were reportedly made in Nairobi at costs of Sh1 million and transported to the constituency while there were more pressing needs such as lack of roads or food.

But on a positive note, the latest NTA report observed that the level of uptake of CDF fund has gone up to an average of 80 per cent of the CDF budget per constituency compared to 60 per cent last year when the research was carried out.

“More, however, needs to be done to put in structures to ensure that no money is lost under CDF and more so as we enter into the county government system according to the new constitution,” said NTA chairman Peter Kubebea.