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Category: Press Statements

Published on Friday, 30 December 2011 12:48

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I would like to take this opportunity to welcome members of the press who have come to cover this Press Conference and the Ministry staff who are here today.

My Ministry appreciates the support the media has continued to give us and I encourage you to continue the good work of informing and educating the wider public on issues of national importance.

The purpose of calling you here today is to officially inform you that I have directed that a taskforce be established to review and recommend necessary amendments to the CDF Act 2003 and CDF (Amendment) Act 2007.

The main responsibility of this taskforce is to identify potential areas of amendment to the Act with a view to addressing the operational constraints for smooth management and implementation of the CDF.

As you are aware, the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was established in 2003 through the CDF Act in the Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 107 (Act No. 11) of January 9^th, 2004 whose main objective was to fight poverty and shift planning/identification of projects to the local communities, hence a bottom-up planning approach to development.

Let me mention here that since inception in 2003, the implementation of CDF has encountered a number of operational and policy challenges which include:

· Low utilization of completed facilities especially educational and health institutions and cattle dips due to lack of collaboration with line ministries especially on staff requirements;

· Poor community participation and contribution to projects;

· Weak capacity to identify viable projects;

· Low technical capacity to implement development projects;

· Non-adherence to laid down government procedures, rules and regulations, especially as concerns public procurement;

· Poor management of transition during elections;

· Low utilization of technical officers in the implementation of projects; and

· Too many small projects thinly spread with little or low impact.

The taskforce we are launching today is expected to address those challenges and come up with specific recommendations for amendments to the existing CDF legislation and regulations. The taskforce which will be operational for a period of sixty days (60) will be guided by the following terms of reference:

1. To consider the appropriateness of the existing CDF allocation criteria including the poverty indexes and their application and assess the adequacy and usage of the 2.5 percent CDF allocation and review the coverage of eligible projects and programmes.

2. To consider the existing institutional framework and how it can be strengthened in order to promote accountability and transparency in the administration of the CDF.

3. To analyze and define specific roles and responsibilities of the key players for effective coordination and management of the fund. These are Fund Account Managers, District Accountants, Members of Parliament, various CDF Committees, district Development Officers, other Ministries Officers, Local Authorities Officers and Community members.

4. To establish the interface between CDF and other devolved funds and make recommendations on how they can leverage or reinforce each other for maximum impact. This should include the role of CDF (and devolved funds in general) in the realization of the Kenya Vision 2030 and the District Development Plans.

5. To consider and recommend optimal staffing levels and capacity needs to adequately design, execute and monitor CDF projects including the Terms and Conditions of Service for the CDF staff as well as the existing compensation structure and criteria at all CDF levels.

6. To establish why some completed projects remain idle and make recommendations on how to ensure they are put to use for the intended purpose so as to benefit the people at the grass root level

7. To study the current CDF Act 2003 and CDF Act (amended) 2007 and identify areas that require review and/or amendments including a review of CDF operations and procedures that are not addressed or adequately covered by the Acts and propose amendments and enhancements/coverage for inclusion in the Act and draft amendment bill.

8. To study and recommend how the overall management of the CDF can be strengthened and its absorption and that of other devolved funds can be scaled up.

Thank you.

Treasury Building

June 22, 2009

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