Study shows widespread abuse and diversion of CDF 

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By WILSON SAENI

Diversion of Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was widespread in Central Kwara’ae Constituency (CKC) in Malaita Province as recipients diverted the funds to other areas to suit their preferences and the amount of funds made available.

A recent survey conducted in CKC in late last year revealed a good number of constituents who have received CDF support from CKC had diverted funds from their primary purposes. The same study by a group of local journalists was also carried out in North Guadalcanal, West New Georgia-VonaVona Constituency in the Western Province.

As revealed in the survey in CKC, not all cases of diverted funds were bad as some have proven to be very successful and positive in the end.

It was discovered that the decision to divert funds from their initial purposes was mainly influenced by less funding allocation which was insufficient to drive the intension of their projects.

For instance, CKC each year allocated $5,000 worth of building materials to the supporters of the former Member of Parliament (MP) Jackson Fiulaua to help them with house construction.

To build a house with an allocation of $5,000 was impossible with high cost of building materials and labour cost. Some constituents, after weighing the pros and cons about how best they should utilize the $5,000 allocation decided to divert the funding towards a more doable project.

One story of CDF funding diversion was at Fiu community where a family of six took matters into their own hands and decided to combine their funding allocation of $5,000 intended for a housing project totaling up to $35,000.  Instead of getting building materials, the family decided to divert the allocation to goods and started a small business (canteen).

According to their spokesperson Pastor Joel, instead of getting building materials worth $35,000 from a hardware store in Auki, the family decided to get goods and started a canteen in which all six members owned shares.

Joel said so far, the canteen was serving its purpose in the community by supplying basic goods to the villagers.

 He added their aim was to grow the canteen and later use the profit to build permanent houses for all six members in the future.

Another story of fund diversion took place at Maoro where a recipient who was given 24 pieces of roofing iron, sold 17 of them and used the remaining seven to build a canteen.

The recipient, who is a teacher, then used the money he obtained from selling of the 17 pieces iron roofing to purchase goods and started a canteen.

According to the teacher, his canteen was still up and running, supplying the community with basic goods and his family with a daily income.

The teacher revealed that CKC promised to support him with additional building materials to build his house, but it never happened.

Knowing he cannot afford to build a house without further support from CKC, he changed plan by selling some of the roofing irons to start his small canteen business.

The teacher said he is planning to build a fully permanent house in the future from income he generates from the canteen.

Another interesting story of CDF fund diversion took place at Aisiko kindergarten extension. According to the head of Aisiko kindergarten Nester Pala, CKC promised to help pay for teachers’ salary, but failed to live up to the promise.

Prior to that, CKC donated $10,000 worth of building materials to help Aisiko kindergarten extension to build a new classroom.

However, following the lack of financial support from CKC to pay for teachers’ salary, the school decided to sell some of the building materials to meet the teachers’ salary.

Even though the school failed to implement the classroom project, the school ended the 2023 academic year on high note as teachers had dedicated their time well ensuring the academic year ended successfully.

John Tobi from Abetabaá community also confessed to diverting funds of $10,000 intended to support his cocoa dryer project to meet school fee demand. Tobi said his cocoa dryer project didn’t eventuate as the funding has gone towards meeting his children’s school fees.

Another interesting finding also revealed during the survey was that CKC share of CDF has failed to meet the most pressing needs in CKC which is water and sanitation.

As revealed during the survey, the two most pressing needs in CKC are water and sanitation, and economic opportunity.

Twenty-one respondents of the 50 who took part in the survey pointed out water and sanitation as the most pressing need in their respective communities.

Sixteen respondents stated that economic opportunities at the community level were lacking where they made their wishes known that CDF should be used to trigger economic activities at the community level to help bring cashflow to the communities.

Thirteen respondents of the 50 people who took part in the survey asked CKC to spend CDF on education, community health infrastructure, and community facilities.

When asked the question, “Do you think CDF meets the most pressing need in your community?” Twenty-seven respondents say no, three respondents say yes, while 20 respondents say they are not sure.

Based on the findings, the way CKC shared its CDF in the past five years clearly failed to live up to people’s expectations as it did not address water and sanitation and economic opportunities, educational infrastructure, community health infrastructure, and community facilities as revealed in the survey.

Some communities didn’t get CDF and left behind because they did not apply.

Some didn’t even know the process to apply for CDF, and some didn’t even have contact details of how to contact their MP, CDO, and CPO. These people shared the view that they expected the MP, CDO, CPO, and their sub-committees to tour the constituency visiting every community to see what their pressing needs are and fund them with the CDF accordingly.

For some people and communities, waiting for the MP and his supporting network to show up at their community to identify their pressing issues had been the case for the past 12 years.

Meanwhile, the former CDO of CKC David Maefunu   stated that some of the project areas CKC funded through its CDF share in the past five years were social projects, community projects, and individual projects.

He said the CKC also used the CDF to fund school fees, funerals, bride price payment, and even compensation payments where he admitted that some of the spending are well outside of CDF jurisdiction.

He confirmed that the frustration of not benefiting from CDF funded projects has turned none-voters to become aggressive where he said some even threatened office bearers to give them projects.

edited & compiled by [email protected]

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