Minister Nkombo, let go off the approval of CDF projects
LOCAL Government and Rural Development Minister Garry Nkombo is perceived to be the heir apparent to President Hakainde Hichilema.
Serving as minister provides him a probationary period to test his aptitude and ability for the office of the President. So far, his performance is below average.
Just look at his ministerial score card, you realise that his ministry is very critical in creating the success story for whole government delivering people-led development through the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
Yet, he has paid greater attention to matters such as inspection of Kachasu which have less impact on improving the living standards of majority of our poor people in our communities.
While the release of the CDF from the Ministry of Local Government was efficient, the bottlenecks began emerging around disbursement of funds by the local authorities because of heavy red tape.
There has been a consistent outcry to revisit the CDF guidelines and Mr Nkombo just ignored such demands from people including chiefs until when President Hichilema instructed him to address those concerns.
This type of leadership he is showing is reactive than responsive. There was no need for Mr Nkombo to wait for the Presidential instruction to work on matters that are clearly within his powers. Yet, he was even proud to hold a media briefing to announce the process of reviewing the guidelines.
As they review the guidelines, the central issues is to respect the principle of decentralisation (de-centre the central government). This means removing the central from playing the key role in management of CDF and facilitating the community to access it.
To be practical, I suggest that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development leave the approval of CDF projects to the district office and as a ministry only play the role of disbursement of funds, monitoring and evaluation and some extent impact assessment.
Please, Mr Nkombo, do not stick to approval processes just to look powerful and important. You are already important by serving in cabinet.