Written by John Kabaka 2012-07-24 11:33:00 Read 697 Times

Housing Minister who is also the Malava Mp Peter Soita Shitanda, has warned the National Taxpayer Association (NTA) from setting foot in the constituency dismissing its mandate of being a tax payer watchdog as it claims.

Shitanda told West Fm that NTA was being manipulated and used by other politicians to taint his name not only in the  region but nationally.

“The association has lost its ground totally and I can assure it is being used by other forces to make me look bad in the public domain,” said the minister.

He claimed that the association is undertaking activities on its own remarking that even the umbrella ministry of Planning and Vision 2030 does not recognize them.

“As I talk to you now I can boldly assure you that even the ministry of planning do not know who or what NTA is and nobody should believe them,” he said.

Responding on claims that the association has against him that his constituency has not utilized well the constituency development fund (CDF), Shitanda said all projects funded by the kitty are complete while others are underway.

“These people come to my constituency photograph ongoing projects and says that the project have been abandoned or are a stalled without knowing that everything starts ,undergoes a process of bringing it up before its complete,” remarked Shitanda.

“All projects in Malava funded by CDF are complete and others are in the process of completion and the so called NTA should not mislead people as well as taint my name.” He added.

He mentioned the building of a multipurpose laboratory at Lwandeti High school as the recent project that is being funded by the development fund.

“On Friday I was in my constituency giving Kshs 1 million to Lwandeti high school to finish up the laboratory and we have promised them another Ksh1 million for fitting the equipments and apparatus required for the science subjects,” he said.

Earlier, the National Taxpayer Association had planned to launch its report card on CDF funded projects on Friday but it had not been confirmed if they will still go on with the launch.

“We will be launching our reports as from Tuesday 24 in Butere constituency, then proceed to Shinyalu before moving to Malava on Friday,” said Evelyne Khamala the NTA Western regional coordinator.

In an interview with West Fm she had indicated that the Mp had warned her and the entire office from appearing in his constituency.

“We are still hanging in balance as to whether we should proceed and launch the Malava constituency CDF report because as we speak the Minister of Housing who is the area mp has warned us from steeping in the area,” said Ms Khamala.

She however said the association will not be cowed to undertake its functions.She mentioned that the association was on the ground in Khwisero, Hamisi, Ikolomani, Butula and Nambale constituencies on the use and misuse of the fund affirming to release the reports before the end of this year.

Malava constituency has been on the forefront in terms of the constituencies that do not utilize well the fund.

This was clear when the national constituency development fund board released its scorecard rating the constituency among those with poor utilization of the fund.

According to the report at least Kshs 50 million could not be accounted for, an issues that the Member of Parliament dismissed fully.

While in Kakamega during a kakamega County public awareness campaign a director with national board Ahmed Abbas said the board will release a list of constituencies which best utilized the kitty and those that misused the fund as well.

Previously Butere, Gatanga and Kaloleni were on top  of the list of constituencies that use the Constituency Development Fund kitty well.

Switch to Our Mobile Site