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Councillors in the North West district have called for the government to inject more funding into Constituency Community Projects (CCP).
Speaking at the special full council meeting this week Boseja,South councilor, Itumeleng Kelebetseng said the P10 million CCP funding from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development is not enough, now that the government has changed the mandate of the project to focus on internal roads maintenance.
Kelebetseng said that to maintain internal roads is very expensive and cannot be covered by the P10 million therefore government should at least allocate CCP more than P20-30 million for inclusion of such projects which he said is still not enough either.
He said in Maun East, there are seventeen (17) wards which have long internal roads which cannot be accommodated in the P10 million highlighting that the pavement of the 0.9 km Boseja South road from Lafoxy through Boseja VDC was allocated P3.6 million which is not enough because the project was not completed due to financial constraints.
Kelebetseng further revealed that in Boseja South alone, more than P20 million has been allocated for paving of internal roads from route 9 (Boseja Cemetery) road via Andrew Wellio to Leapotswe joining A3 road at a tune of P12.8 million and the paving of new road at Matshwane clinic curve at the junction at the turn going to east until Andrew Wellio gravel road at a tune of P3.6 million.
“All these roads are very important to help reduce traffic but the CCP funds are not enough for the entire constituency and we are hopeful for the additional funding that will help in our constituency roads,” he said.
Sedie ward councilor, Kaukapita Kaukapita revealed that the CCP projects in the district are not completed because of lack of proper planning and implementation which need councilors and members of parliament to introspect in that regard.
He said most of the roads projects are not completed and when funds arise they fail to complete them highlighting the Sedie-Moeti road which is still lies incomplete. He said this time around P4 million has been allocated to do just 1 kilometre of the 2.7 km stretch.
Furthermore, Kaukapita stressed about the need for proper planning from the political side to make sure that implementation of these projects is well executed with councilors and members of parliament coordinating them well.
Maun West Member of Parliament Dumelang Saleshando responded that the planning and implementation of the CCP projects are done by ministry of local government and rural development through councils. He said his office does the oversight and signing of the proposed projects document after the council’s consultations with the communities and councillors.
He stressed that for the Constituency Development Funds (CDF) to have an increase in its funding, it will have to be from the will of the President because the fund does not have an Act of Parliament neither a policy therefore there is no way it can be advocated for in parliament.
Saleshando further noted that his office will continue to engage with relevant authorities on planning and implementation of these projects to improve the situation of bad roads in the Maun West constituency.
“The problem that we do have is that of expensive paving materials which we buy from as far as Francistown, Gaborone and that has affected our budget and therefore I agree with those that say the constituency development funds are not enough,” he said.
