Authorities have stressed on the need for the country’s local councils to prudently use resources allocated under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).

The call follows a call by some members of parliament that CDF be increased to meet various development activities happening at a council level.

But reacting to the plea, minister responsible for Local Government, Unity and Culture, Richard Chimwendo Banda said much as the increment is a welcoming idea, local councils need to be transparent and accountable on how they use CDF.

He said: “I think increases its increase whether it’s going to be 5 million. I will be very happy as long as there’s an increase, there must never be a reduction. So even if you give us 105 million from 100 million, I will be very happy that the more point is we should move forward.

“And I am saying increase transparency and accountability, and if I will be quoted as a minister responsible, this is how I want to be quoted, because even donors will give more money to the councils because the resources are not only from government.”

Going forward, Chimwendo Banda has reiterated on the need for prudent disbursement and usage of the funds in order to attract donor confidence.

“So, our emphasis is not to grow in revenue or grow in cash flow, but to grow in transparency and accountability and prudent use of such resources. Because if we are going to use such resources, a K100 million can do quite a lot.

“But for the donors to continue to give us those resources, there must be transparency and accountability, and we must stop abuse,” said Chimwendo Banda.

The minister has since disclosed that for the first time, councils have had clean audits as they used to have only one in the past.

Chimwendo Banda said the ministry has put a mechanism to make sure that resources are safeguarded and now there are clean records for more than half of the councils and there has never been a diverse council which is extreme and can’t receive resources.