Governors get K1 million each

THE 20 provincial governors will next year join their 89 Open MPs in receiving money directly from the Development Budget in cheques made to their provincial treasuries to “improve provincial services”.
The new provincial improvement services programme (PSIP) has been allocated K20 million under the Development Budget.
That works out to K1 million per electorate.
Politicians will also be the cheques bearers, with a further K1 million each under the national agriculture development programme (NADP).
The programme has been transferred from the Department of Agriculture and Livestock and will be placed directly in the districts.
A total of K109 million or K1 million for each Open MP and K20 million will be parked in the National Development Bank for credit to the rural sector.
The district services improvement programme (DSIP) is also maintained at K2 million for each of the K89 electorates or K178 million – also under the Development Budget.
The concept was introduced immediately after the 2007 national elections with a K4 million per electorate or K356 million allocation.
This was further increased to K6 million per electorate or K534 million in 2008 and K356 million was allocated this year.
After 2010, each district or electorate in the country would have been allocated K16
million.
A total of K1,246.0 million has been appropriated for the DSIP.
For ease of management of these funds, an individual bank account was established for each of the 89 districts, and to date a total of K890 million has been released into the 89 district DSIP bank accounts.
The remaining K356 million appropriated in the 2009 Development Budget is in the process of being released into the 89 DSIP bank accounts, according to the budget papers yesterday.
The opening balance as at Jan 1, 2009, of the 89 DSIP trust accounts was K225.6 million.
Total receipts for the period Jan 1 to Sept 30, 2009, equals K464 million.
The total expenditure incurred for the period Jan 1 to Sept 30 totalled K275.3 million.
The closing balance of the 89 DSIP trust accounts as at Sept 30 was K412.3 million.
The Department of Finance, in consultation with the Department of National Planning and the Office of Rural Development, developed a finance instruction which provides guidance on the use and management of the DSIP funds.
The budget papers noted that “no financial or project reporting has been provided by the implementing agencies nor the relevant districts to the Department of Finance to date”.
Defending the DSIP yesterday, Finance and Treasury Minister Patrick Pruaitch said: “DSIP is one funding that is landing at the district and village level. We believe it works.”
He promised an audit into the entire programme next year.
A detailed table of the movement of funds in each district will be published tomorrow.