Appraisals, scores for Mps

The Sunday Mail

Lincoln Towindo
Members of Parliament will each receive US$12 500 to develop their respective constituencies under the Constituency Development Fund. The remaining US$37 500 for each MP will be released progressively from Treasury.

This comes as the CDF Bill which aims to guide the Fund’s managed has stalled in Parliament. The Bill provides that legislators who abuse the money and their accomplices will be jailed for up to five years. Authorities failed to nail MPs who abused the Fund during the inclusive Government era (2009-2013) due to the absence of prescribed penalties.

Clerk of Parliament Mr Kennedy Chokuda declined commenting on the latest round of money, saying he was out of the country.

Zanu-PF Chief Whip Cde Lovemore Matuke told The Sunday Mail: “The core business of parliamentarians is representation, oversight and legislation. That is basically what we have been using to assess the performance of our parliamentarians. “But it is very difficult to measure performance with regards to development owing to lack of resources. What we really wanted when we came up with the idea of appraisals was to measure how our MPs would facilitate development of their constituencies through the CDF. “We wanted to assess how they would have applied it in developing their constituencies, but as you may be aware, that money has not been forthcoming.”

Cde Matuke also said: “Now, we have a situation where some MPs are poor while others have resources. Others, still, are able to source resources from elsewhere. It then becomes difficult to compare their performance given their different situations. “We have been making assessments, but not strictly as we should if MPs had been afforded the resources to drive development. “MPs will receive a portion of the US$50 000 in coming weeks; from there, we will be able to assess their performance in terms of being vehicles of development. The party is, however, generally pleased with the performance of its legislators.”

In 2013, Zanu-PF introduced performance assessments for its MPs to ensure they fulfilled election promises.  Inspection teams were set up to verify the MPs’ work reports.

Cde Matuke said: “Of course, we are receiving performance reports from our MPs and the general performance has been impressive. Those who are active on the ground have been submitting the reports while others who are facing challenges with resources have not been forthcoming at times. “We will soon start asking MPs to submit these reports without fail. We want to ensure those we entrusted with our people have been doing their jobs effectively.

“We understand that at times, it is not easy for MPs to drive development on their own because of budget limitations, but we expect them to do their utmost best with the little they have.”