8/9/2019 Secrets Mentality Undermining CDF Performance

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ByMUSA RADOLI

For a long time since the establishmentof the Constituency Development Fund(CDF) Ann Wambui Karanja had tried toaccess information on its operations atconstituency and project levels but failed.

Though a respected member andleader of the community in Nakuru townconstituency, her efforts to seek basicinformation concerning the London Gioto

water tank project only met a wall of silence,secrecy, suspicion and outright hostility.

Like thousands of other residents of theNakuru Town constituency community, Ms.Karanja was aware of the fact that the CDF

was a community fund for developmentprojects, but was not aware of the roleshe was supposed to play, leading to thegeneral belief that the projects were merelyrewards from the government.

She says it was impossible not onlyto access the documents concerning the

London Gioto water tank project, but alsoget the PMC officials to talk about theproject, whose estimated total cost duringthe 2006/7 fiscal year was pegged at Kshs.3.6 million. A total of Kshs. 1.3 million wasallocated and spent while Kshs. 2.3 million

was frozen by the CDFC.

The consequences of this perpetual stateof secrecy are that the community appearsto have lost the project to the prisonsdepartment since the incomplete tank

was built on land belonging to the prisonsdepartment hence the freezing of thecash.

However, the most dramatic of all is thedecisive action by the community in April2010 to sack the previous PMC and replaceit with a team elected by members of thecommunity.

According to a social audit of the projectcovering the period between 2003 and 2007,the tank construction is incomplete andalready has signs of leakages on the wallsthough in use by the prisons community.

The report says there was poor recordkeeping, documentation and lack ofsufficient information on the financialmanagement status. There were noinvoices, vouchers, Local Purchase Orders

(LPOs) and receipts found in the projectfile.

The project was started by a membershiporganization thus limiting communityinvolvement and ownership. It was hijackedby the GK prisons and ownership changedinto their name. The PMC chairmanadmitted they were no longer in controland thus the remaining Kshs. 2, 347, 904

withheld by the CDF cannot be released tocomplete the project, says the report.

This appears only to have been thetip of the ice berg as the officials of theCentre for Enhancing Democracy andGood Governance (CEDGG) were soon tofind out when they tried to mobilise thecommunitys involvement in the CDF Social

Audit of projects in the constituency.

CEDGG Programmes Manager, CorneliusOduor declares: It was a nightmare to getany information or document concerning theCDF projects throughout the constituency.

Worse still, members of the communityhad been reduced to total apathy. Peoplehad given up, we therefore had to buildtheir capacities and educate them on theirrights for them to be able to take chargeand ownership of the projects.

Indeed it took the intervention of thelocal District Development Officer (DDO)and the District Officers (DO) intervention.

Even so the CDFC officials werereluctant to release project filesfor scrutiny and out of morethan 50 projects involved, only15 files were released for theSocial Audit exercise.

We were only able to get 15project files for the communitytrainings, but even as that washappening the CDFC sent outdirections to all the PMCs notto release project files to us. Wehad to make do with what wehad since the files covered a

wide section of various projects

across the constituency,says the CEDGG programmesManager.

He says that after acquiringthe files, information wasshared with communitymembers about specific projectsat the grassroots level beforeconvening a stakeholdersconstituency forum to shareand critique the findings of the audit.

CEDGG reports that after a successfulsocial audit of the 15 projects, the Nakurutown CDFC officials have virtually turned

around and are cooperating by encouragingthe PMCs to avail information concerningprojects to the members of the publicbecause of the positive impact.

The biggest roadblocks to accessinginformation, documents and files concerningthe projects have been the PMCs. That is

why many are now being replaced by thecommunities, says Mr. Oduor.

Following the sacking of the old PMCat Gioto, a local community leader, DanielKamau told this writer: The new PMCleadership has embarked on an immediateprogramme to recover the project fromthe prisons authorities and restore it

back to community ownership after beingempowered by the same community.

Ms. Karanja says that unlike the past,members of the community can now accessany information or documents concerningthe project and are also encouraged to give

input in ideas and knowledge to ensure theprojects success.

An official of the new PMC who requestedanonymity says the biggest challenge thecommittee was facing was getting therelevant files, documents and informationconcerning the project.

He says apart from engaging the CDFCto release the remaining cash to completethe project, plans were underway toconstruct piping to the relevant estates andalso construction of community water kioskpoints.

The story of this state of affairs wasnot restricted to the London Gioto waterproject, since the PMC of the RhondaMarket has also been sacked by membersof the community due to similar problems.

Mr. John Momanyi who led a social auditteam from CEDGG says: The new PMC isbusy putting everything in order especiallythe documentation, records and other

information concerning the project. Asmembers of the community we are alreadyseeing a big difference now.

Momanyi says that for the first time

any member of the community can goand scrutinize the project files, ask anyquestions and get information that she/hemay require adding that priority has beenpegged on securing the title deed for the2.6 acre piece of land on which the marketstands.

The Constituencys CDF Fund ManagerPeter Gishira confirms that following theopening up of the CDFC to communitymembers in recent years, relations withthe communities and other stakeholdershad greatly improved and ironed outsuspicions.

Gishira says that although there were

a few PMCs across the constituency who were still reluctant to cooperate withmembers of the community, especially inbeing transparent and accountable in theirproject activities, they risked being thrownout of office by the communities.

Mb he CEDGG Socal Adit am in Nakur Twn

e Ln G a pj

Secrets mentality undermining CDF performance

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