MPs accuse SDC of delaying CDF projects
Published:Tuesday | September 29, 2015 | 1:32 PM
COMPLAINING ABOUT inordinate delays in the disbursement of funds from the Social Development Commission (SDC) for the implementation of projects under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), some members of Parliament have requested and received approval for their CDF projects to be implemented by another agency of government.
At last week's sitting of the CDF committee of Parliament, acting chairman Mikael Phillips announced changes in implementing agencies for projects in Western Westmoreland and North East Manchester. The committee approved projects, which will now be implemented by parish councils instead of the SDC to which they were first assigned.
Committee member JC Hutchinson accused the SDC office in Mandeville of being responsible for extensive delays in implementing projects. He said, in some instances, it could take months after the agency gets money from the CDF unit before projects are rolled out.
Head of the CDF unit in the Office of the Prime Minister, Moveta Munroe, said the SDC handles a multiplicity of projects and, at times, money disbursed from her office to the SDC is not immediately transferred to the regional offices.
Phillips told his colleagues the delay by the SDC in implementing CDF projects has resulted in members of Parliament coming under fire from constituents.
Everald Warmington, former chairman of the CDF committee. charged that the SDC placed CDF funds in fixed-deposit accounts when the agency should be implementing projects.
"I ask in (Standing) Finance Committee already, what happens to the interest that is gained from those investments of CDF funds by the SDC, and we ask for a report which we have not yet received," said Warmington.