Legislature puts Treasury on the spot over delay in release of CDF funds

KIMILILI, KENYA: Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa has called on the Treasury to come up with a water-tight plan that would see release of constituency development funds in time.

The legislator says the unpredictable release of the funds have delayed the execution of wealth-creating projects by MPs, thereby defeating the very essence of their existence.

“What would be the purpose of the fund if it cannot address the challenges meant to be addressed in time? There are those activities that cannot be postponed, and any delays means that the would-be beneficiaries suffer,” he said in Kimilili on Saturday.

He observed that thousands of needy form one students reporting to their respective schools in January as the ones to be hit hard by the hiccup.

“To date, the funds have not yet been released. This means as schools open in January, most needy students whom we’ve already identified as the beneficiaries of the CDF bursary would not get anything. This is a dangerous trend for it may lead to low transitions between primary and secondary education, and most importantly, increase the cases of drop-outs.”

Statistics show that most of the Kimilili constituency residents cannot afford paying school fees for their children, compelling them to rely on bursaries. “If an urgent intervention cannot be instituted, we are likely to see many bright but needy students suffer. In the long-run, this may have negative repercussions to the overall development of our country,” Mr Barasa said.

He added that the Treasury and the CDF Board should be ashamed of their don’t-care-approach to issues. Mr Barasa says whereas the CDF board and Treasury may cite bureaucracies and some sections of the law as the hiccups facing the release of the funds, such challenges ought to have been mitigated, and ensure poor Kenyans are not affected. 

“Laws and procedures should be friendly and dictated by the needs of the society. Thousands of students who rely on bursaries now run the risk of losing their form one chances for the lack of school fees. This can only be mitigated if the bursaries are given out on or before January 2 for parents to plan accordingly. The Treasury and the CDF Board are letting down efforts of the Jubilee government and as Parliament, we must come together to address this issue before it gets out of hand,” he said.

Going forward, he noted, the date of releasing funds to constituency CDF accounts should be dictated by school opening dates calendar. “If this cannot be achieved, then we better have a special constituency fund specifically to support needy students. As MPs, we need to put sanctions to the accounting officers of these two crucial entities for such delays. Whatever reason they give is not acceptable.”