Finance and National Planning Minister Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane says the government is concerned with the low absorption rate of the Constituency Development Fund.
Dr. Musokotwane said in the mid-year Budget and Economic performance brief on the amount disbursed so far, that only K84.55 million has been spent as at 30th June 2022 representing 4.2 percent absorption, from about K2.01 billion released.
He said the government is currently working with all relevant institutions to resolve the bottlenecks that are hampering the utilization of these funds.
Dr. Musokotwane is confident that the bottlenecks which include, among other issues, lack of information on CDF processes and the perceived cumbersome registration and procurement processes will be resolved soon.
And Dr. Musokotwane has disclosed that in the first quarter of 2022, the government managed to collect total revenues and grants amounting to K54.7 billion and was 5.5 percent above the half-year budget target of K51.9 billion.
He said on the other hand, Government released a total of K69.6 billion to finance public service delivery and this was below target by 14.7 percent mainly as a result of delayed recruitment and the continued external debt service standstill.
Meanwhile, Dr. Musokotwane said the domestic economy grew by 2.4 percent in Quarter 1 of 2022 compared to a growth of 1.8 percent recorded during the first quarter of 2021 and this was mainly influenced by the Education and ICT sectors.
