Chirundu: Government warns against embezzlement of CDF funds

Government has warned beneficiaries of the Constituency Development Funds (CDF), saying it would not tolerate misappropriation of grants.

Chirundu Town Council Chairperson, Nevers Muchindu, stated that President Hakainde Hichilema had deliberately expanded CDF scope to uplift the lives of citizens.

Muchindu said this during a workshop organised by the Centre for Environment Justice (CEJ) on Wednesday, in Chirundu, Southern Province.

“Such resources should not be abused and challenged stakeholders to work hard in bridging the information gap as some people are not conversant with the process of accessing CDF,” he warned.

Earlier, CEJ Head of Programmes, Haggai Nyambe, pledged his organisation’s readiness to help the marginalised to draft proposals for them to benefit from CDF.

Nyambe said CEJ was advocating for the Local Authority to give a minimum of three projects to be executed by people living with disabilities, a move Chirundu Council Secretary Embassy Cheembo was willing to facilitate.

Meanwhile, Chirundu Town Council Socio-Economic Planner, Natasha Masamba, urged people living with disabilities in the climate stressed district, to take advantage of CDF to improve their livelihoods.

“The Scope of the CDF has expanded and budgetary allocation increased to support Community-Centred Development, encourage entrepreneurship and promote access to education and skills development by orphaned and vulnerable community members,” she said.

Masamba added that government empowerment programmes had adopted an inclusive approach to prioritise the youths, women, people living with disabilities and other vulnerable persons in the community.

“CDF will equip beneficiaries with seed money in form of grants given to organized groups. clubs and cooperatives and also equip Cooperatives and individuals with established small and medium scale businesses with empowerment loans,” she said.

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