BY MAVIS NISHIMURA PODOKOLO
THE people of Lord Howe can now say they know of the government’s constituency development fund (CDF) and what they expect from it.
A community awareness run by the Transparency Solomon Islands (TSI) last week at the villages of Luaniua and Pelau has been labelled an eye opener for the rural people of Lord Howe.
During the awareness, the people of Lord Howe were informed of their entitlement to benefit from the Fund.
They were also taught that this money is public money hence they have all the right to know how this money is used and spent in terms of constituency developments.
Executive Director of TSI Ruth Liloqula said it is essential to properly inform citizens about CDF because there is a need to address the problem of inequality in resource distributions within all constituencies.
Liloqula voiced that this has led to the introduction of sharing CDF information to help solve this inequality issues and also for citizens to know and ask on the whereabouts of the CDF.
She also adds by encouraging community members to participate in community development as well as having confident in monitoring this Fund.
“With this I encouraged you (community members) to participate in community developments, democratic processes and also monitor where funds being used because it’s a public money collected from taxes,” she said.
Chief Peter Kalili on behalf of the people of Lord Howe said the information on CDF shared has been an eye opener for Lord Howe communities.
Kalili said with this information they will able to assess the role of CDF in achieving equitable distribution of resources to constituencies.
