Kasarani Constituency Devolved Funds: Decisive Action Needed to Curb Pilferage of public Funds

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) September 22, 2010 -- NAIROBI, Sept. 22, 2010—The Government should urgently launch investigations to establish the amount of money voters in Kasarani have lost because of stalled projects, corruption and diversion of funds with a view to prosecuting those found guilty.

This follows a social audit of the running of devolved funds allocated to Constituency by the Government which reveals massive irregularities in project choice, procurement and management of resources awarded to various projects in the area by the funds management committees, said Ms. Wanjiru Gikonyo the National Coordinator, The Institute for Social Accountability (TISA) and Mr. Francis Anyenda Programmes Officer, Shelter Forum.

“In Kasarani Constituency, there are very low completion rates especially with CDF Projects. Similarly, a large number of projects are stalled or abandoned. With this statistics, it is evident that laxity and embezzlement of financial resources might have taken place. Punitive action should be taken on the officials and contractors responsible for Mwiki/Dandora Footbridge and Korogocho Market office” Gikonyo and Anyenda noted.

On behalf of the people of Kasarani, the organizations that partnered with the social audit exercise are demanding an audit and completion of present projects prior to release of new funding.

Another issue of concern is the situation where CDF officials are contractors and at the same time members of project management committees which is a conflict of interest in procurement. There were 3 instances of corruption. All these 3 projects are stalled with no records on the implementation process.

TISA, Shelter Forum and Ufadhili Trust also want the Kasarani CDFC, The Ministry of Local Government, Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning, National development and Vision 2030 to proactively disclose project information including work plans, bill of quantities, contractor profiles and contractor agreements as a way of allowing accountability and transparency in overseeing public monies.

“It is alarming that CDF projects in Kasarani constituency are being implemented without project lists. Despite numerous requests, the social auditors were not provided with up-to-date project lists. These are also not on both the CDF Board’s and Kasarani constituency websites, which is a contravention of the CDF Act,” according to the three organizations.

Section 28 of the Amended CDF Act 2007 provides that the Board will submit monthly reports to Parliament on the status of approved projects and their status and a summary of disbursements to the constituencies. The Board is not updating this information onto the website demonstrating that it is either deliberately withholding information or not generating the needed information and is therefore in breach of the law.

Presently Kasarani CDF and LASDAP officials routinely and systematically withhold information from the public and deny citizens the opportunity to engage effectively in their own local development. We hereby call upon the CDF Board, Kasarani CDFC and the LASDAP desk to institute a proactive information disclosure policy with a view to promoting accountability in CDF and LATF management.



Another trend evident Kasarani constituency and wards visited is that project beneficiaries are locked out of the implementation process.

Background

The validation forum is part of the Nairobi-Kisumu social audit campaign which targeted three decentralized funds: Constituency Development Fund [CDF], Local Authority Transfer Fund [LATF] and Economic Stimulus Programme [ESP].

The Nairobi Social Audit campaign was jointly undertaken by The Institute for Social Accountability [TISA], Shelter Forum and Ufadhili Trust. The campaign targeted three decentralized funds: The Constituency Development Fund [CDF], The Local Authority Transfer Fund [LATF] and The Economic Stimulus Programme [ESP].

The validation forum aims at getting feedback from constituents, duty bearers and other actors in the constituency and verifying the findings of the report.

A social audit is a process that seeks to evaluate how well public resources are being used to meet the real needs of target beneficiaries. If well implemented the social audit is an important tool to enable local communities influence local development outcomes.

The Nairobi-Kisumu Social Audit Campaign aimed at: Creating awareness of local governance institutions, identifying resources and opportunities for citizen engagement through social audits and the Utilization of the social audit findings to lobby for reforms.

Since June 2010, with the help of stakeholders, the Kasarani Constituency social audit team visited a total of 14 projects out of which 11 were CDF and 3 were LATF. Vital information about the utilization and management of financial resources allocated to these projects was collected and compiled into a preliminary report.



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Media Contact: Dorah Nesoba on: Tel: +254 020 444 3676; 0722 711193 Email: dorah.nesoba@tisa.or.ke or info@tisa.or.ke