Party wants DSIP out

THE district services improvement programme funding handled by the joint district planning and budget priorities committees (JDP&BPC) is a waste of time and needs to be stopped.
The Constitutional Democratic Party, at a press conference at the Parliament House last week, revealed that so much money was spent on improving the provinces but the funds were not being used and equally distributed.
The party’s parliamentary leader Tobias Kulang and interim president Ila Geno said the funds were subject to misappropriation and over-manipulation by politicians who were legislators.
He said since 2008, more than K1.66 billion (K18 million each to the districts) had been dished out to the districts but there was nothing to show for it.
Kulang, who had been elected during a by-election recently said that there was no direction in the way the funds could be used in the district and it was subject to misuse.
He said the politicians were legislators and therefore, should not duplicate responsibilities by becoming bureaucrats and public servants and distribute cheques on projects.
He said the idea of the bottom-up planning was an important process but dishing out millions to the district with the politician as the head of the JDP&BPC was a breach of the constitution.
Kulang said that much of the K1.66 billion had been waste dwith no much tangible developments in the districts.
He said only a very few district were leaving the funds in the hands of the civil servants to use while the majority of the politicians were having direct control over the funds.
He said the party would be seeking redness in court next week to prove that the funding was illegal in the sense that the legislators had overtaken the executive arm of the government.
They said since the politicians were the head of the JDP&BPC, they had the ultimate powers to manipulate the funds and much of the K18 million had been used by the districts.
Kulang, who had been in parliament for the last two months said there was a need for a review of the government policy because the funds had not been translated into tangible development.