CDF Act... Loophole in there?

Following Bankelele's comment on my Kudos CDF post, suggesting that the CDF Act needs to be revised to incorporate more governance structures, i quickly dismissed the idea, as in my mind the structures already in place are quite a number and could very possibly become a bureaucratic hinderance to the effective administration of the CDF funds.

However, and to ensure that i not mislead myself (worse still anyone in the kenyan blogosphere), i decided to go back and take a look at the Act and the governance structures in place. Note that my personal comments are in italics.

These are the structures:

1. National Management Committee which consists 4 Permanent Secretaries, Clerk of Parliament, 8 persons appointed by the Minister and qualified in certain specified fields, an Administrative Officer and 8 persons from a list of public organisations.

• This Committee in a nutshell ensures proper management of the CDF Fund.

• Importantly, every disbursement from the Fund must be approved by the National Committee; which raises the question whether they are able to effectively ensure proper management of the Fund in all constituencies.

• Positively however, this Committee can impose reasonable restrictions on any constituency that misuses funds.

2. Constituency Development Committee is constituted for each constituency and consists of the MP, 2 Councillors, 1 District Officer, 2 persons representing religious organisations, 2 men representatives, 2 women representatives, 1 youth representative, 1 NGO representative.

• The CDC deliberates project proposals received from all locations in the constituency & joint projects with other constituencies, and lists them in priority for submission to Parliament
• The CDC is chaired by the MP unless he opts out.

3. District Projects Committee is convened for every district and consists of the MPs within that district, Chairmen & Mayors of local authorities, District Commissioner, District Development Officer, Chairpersons of CDC (MP of each constituency represented) and District Accountant.

• The DPC's main function is to coordinate implementation of projects financed tho' the Fund
• Each MP for each constituency represented tables a list of projects for his/her constituency before the DPC
• The DPC examines the list of projects and ensures no duplication where its prudent to combine efforts on projects
• The DPC, where there is no duplication, shall recommend the list of projects for onward transmission to the Clerk thro' the individual MPs.
• Its noteworth, that the DPC is not entitled to withhold its approval for any grounds besides duplication, thereby reducing to that extent their governance function.

4. Constituencies Fund Committee is a Parliamentary Select Committee which consists of a chairman and not more than 10 other MPs who are not Ministers/ Assistant Ministers.

• The CFC considers project proposals received from all constituencies and advises the Clerk of Parliament on which projects shall be submitted to the Minister for inclusion in the annual Govt. budget of a particular financial year. Consider the number of constituencies and the number of projects that this CFC must approve- we must wonder whether they have the necessary capacity.
  
• Project proposals must go thro' the approval process and reach the Clerk before the end of February of each year to enable the Minister accomodate the projects in the annual budget

What do you think about the governance structures. Are they adequate? See the Act in full here.