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Poor governance, institutionalized and misapplication of funds are the number one burning issues in Zambia today.

The country has been on the top ten of Transparency International’s annual rating table of corruption for almost a decade.

The local government as a part of national government is entitled to a share of national revenue through grants although most councils derive their revenue from local taxes.

councils can create and collect revenue through the poers vested in them to make by-laws.

The share of social services in the local authorities’ budget is 8 per cent .

Non-official estimates indicate that just one third of the money allocated for health and education directly reaches the community.

 Questions have been raised on the effectiveness of councils with regards to quality of services delivered and whether they are spending revenues according to their mandate.

 It is because of such questions that the CCJDP is inspired to embark on the tracking of local authority development funds to various sectors in the districts.

There is a particular emphasis on the tracking of pro-poor funds as these represent the single largest disbursements to communities.

There are other issues related to the tracking of development funds which include the delivery of items to communities, particularly social services. 

Emphasis in the tracking of the social delivery is the timing and quality of these services.

The project will also focus on the system and bureaucracy of the local pro-poor expenditure and utilization

The specific objectives of the project are to:

• Empower communities' participation in public expenditure tracking, and enhance transparency in the process of using local authorities’ funds;

• Prepare and develop policy recommendation on public expenditure effectively tracking to be submitted to the government.

The general results could be:

• CCJDP also anticipates that the project will also help to raise awareness within communities about the amount of development funds intended for the identified sector in each community.

• established mechanism for the follow - ups of funds disbursed to the various communities;

• improved awareness within the communities of the amount of development funds intended for the identified sector in each community.

This project which will begin in mid July this year will be piloted in Lusaka, Ndola and Solwezi. 

Conclusion

It is envisaged that the final output of this project will enhance transparency in usage of public expenditures, enhance community participation in using of public funds and increase accountability of local government. 

It is also hoped that the knowledge of municipality members and access to necessary information will increase, as well as access to comprehensive and more lucid budget documents will be increased.

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