The Transparency Solomon Islands and UNDP sponsored Constituency Development Fund(CDF) Community Audit has raised some serious questions about the way the fund has been administered and managed by the national politicians and the ruling administration.
A community audit carried out recently in 39 constituencies shows many people are in the dark not just about the existence and amounts of the funds, but also about how to access the funds, let alone have any idea about how the funds have been used.
According to the audit report of 1,129 respondents, 1,115 said they had no idea of the CDF and 14 people said they had some vague ideas, but no idea of the level of funds.
Whilst the TSI community audit shows most of the provinces as lacking much knowledge about the CDF, the people of Temotu appear to have some awareness about the fund, however those in Honiara and Western province say all they get are confusing information.
Asked if CDF is applied to community infrastructure of 1,140 respondents, 196 respondents said Yes and 944 said No.
Asked what they knew about applying for CDF most people(1,114 people out of 1,136) said they have no idea how to apply or where to apply, but in an ensuing question about how people apply for CDF 100 percent gave a positive response: 246 said they used forms, 114 said they used proposals, 78 said they sent letters of request, 49 said they personally approached their MP and 144 said they personally approached their CDO.
Confusions aside, the survey shows that 100 percent(1,140) of respondents had indicated that they had benefitted from CDF assistance when asked if community groups have access to CDF. Out of that 641 were individuals, 166 families, 16 handicaps, 38 youths, 37 women and 242 others.
Asked about the relationship of CDF beneficiaries and their MP 754 respondents said they were just supporters, 856 said they were family members, 27 non supporters, 11 non family members and 98 others.
About Constituency Development Plans, the survey shows most people are not aware of the existence of such plans nor are they involved in any planning process, let alone have any knowledge of the existence or otherwise of any community CDF administering or processing committees.
About constituency visits most people surveyed said they do not get much visits from their MPs, but they did not admit the frequency of their visits and telephone calls to their MPs.
Since its inception the CDF has been progressively fattened from a lean 50 million SBD in 1989 to a bouncy SBD350 million in 2016 with a slight drop to SBD325 million this year.
In the last ten years each constituency had collected SBD47,900,000.00, according to Transparency Solomon Islands.
Transparency Solomon Islands is concerned that there is no mechanism to hold the parliamentarians accountable for the use of funds and is beginning to question their constitutional and legal mandate to administer the funds.
TSI Report
