PROTECT CDF

REPORTS that some contractors are delivering desks contracted through the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) at night so as to escape quality checks make sad reading.
If anything, the practice, if it is indeed happening defeats the whole purpose of trying to empower communities at local level by creating job opportunities within the communities.
The trend might also work against the local contractors, particularly cooperatives as they would not be deemed as trustworthy deserving contracts.
It has emerged in Kitwe that some organisations awarded contracts to supply desks are supplying sub-standards desks which they are delivering to schools in the night without the knowledge of the office of the Member of Parliament councillors and other stakeholders 
The suppliers of the desks are allegedly delivering the desks to schools in the evening to caretakers who cannot question the quality of desks who would later report to the head teacher about the delivery.
In cases where the head teacher of the school is present when delivering the desks, the head teacher has no authority to question the quality of the desks on the assumption that the MP, Councillor and the CDF Committee could have certified the desks.
Chimwemwe Ward Councillor Kelly Muwowo and his Twatasha Ward counterpart Felix Mwalumuna confirmed the supply of the sub-standard desks in some schools which were being delivered in the evening without informing the MP, councillor and other stakeholders.
One question that begs an answer is why in the first place the practice is being allowed. It is standard procedure that goods are delivered during working offices to ensure that they are signed for.
It also ensures that there is accountability, not only from the supplier but the recipient as well.
A red flag should be raised immediately goods and services are done outside working hours.
In the Kitwe scam, Mr Muwowo, a trained carpenter, said the quality of the desks which were being supplied to schools were so poor that even a lay man with no knowledge about carpentry could see the poor quality
“If you are a lay man, and not a bricklayer, you can say this building is a quality building which was done properly, but a bricklayer will tell you some of the areas which were not done properly, but with these desks which are being delivered in schools, even a layman, who is not a carpenter is able to tell that these desks are of poor quality.”
“You wake up in the morning only to be informed of desks which were delivered at some school in the evening. When you go to check the desks, you find poor quality or sub-standard desks,’’ Mr Muwowo said.
We hope the local authorities in Kitwe will investigate this scam which smacks of criminality for quite clearly, this is what it is.
Someone is given a contract and paid but at the end of the day cheats by delivering sub-standard products.
We note that only last week, Chimwemwe MP, Allen Banda called for a thorough investigations into the purchase of poor-quality school desks by the Procurement Department of the Kitwe City Council using CDF
Mr Banda was speaking when he inspected the first batch of the 720 desks bought by the Procurement Department of the KCC for Chimwemwe Secondary School, Ishuko and Kampemba primary schools.
The CDF offers a lot of hope to the grassroot and must not be compromised at any stage by allowing cheats to get away with their crookedness. It must be protected.