Factors Influencing Completion Of Constituency Development Funded Projects. A Case Of Water Projects In North Imenti Constituency, Meru County, Kenya

Abstract

Focus on marginalized regions that lag behind in development has increased tremendously in the last couple of decades with increased number of activities to promote regional development at the international, national and local levels. Regional development contributes to a wide variety of social issues and is increasingly being accepted and used as a tool for sustainable development. The formation of Constituency Development Fund was an attempt to balance development among the regions in the country by devolving funds proportionate to the poverty index in each constituency. This study dealt with factors influencing completion of CDF projects namely; community participation, planning, contractor competence and budgetary allocations. The essence of CDF was to spur regional developments in the constituencies, however it has been established that the funds from the CDF kitty are not objectively employed for successful completion of developmental projects. Many projects derail in completion while others are abandoned altogether according to National Taxpayers Association. CDF money is not managed in a transparent manner and that communities are not sufficiently involved in its management leading to loss of funds, numerous incomplete project, low quality, untimely and irrelevant project across the constituencies in the country. The purpose of this study sought to examine factors influencing completion of CDF project in North Imenti constituency. The study concentrated on CDF projects in North Imenti constituency and descriptive research design was adopted. The target population of this study was 1080 project stakeholders in North Imenti constituency and a sample size of 200 respondents were selected through stratified random sampling technique. Data was collected through the use of questionnaires and observation chart and analyzed through the use of statistical package for social sciences. The study concludes that concludes that project beneficiaries in North Imenti constituency, were fairly involved in day to day running of the community based projects in the area, project beneficiaries in North Imenti lacked basic knowledge on project management planning process provides direction for the team and its members implementing CBP in North Imenti, during the planning process, the project manager and the project team assign the responsibility for completing each task to specific stake holders in North Imenti. contractors working in North Imenti exhibited high levels of competence in implementing contracts awarded by the CDF committee, contractors‘ financial capability to meet obligations required by the work, budget allocation influenced timely completion of community based projects; CDF must have a financial system that facilitates accountability and cash flow projections., the study recommends that all the stakeholders and especially the local beneficiaries should be included in all assessment and pre-planning activities and implementation processes. External audit team should closely assess contractors work during the implementation to ensure that the quoted performance standards are maintained all through. Project management committee should carefully assess the interest of the stakeholders; this will help to eliminate intergroup conflicts thereby increasing the efficiency in the implementation process. The entire project must adherence to critical path scheduling. Capacity building to the local community members entrusted with daily management of project operations is necessary; Project implementation committee should pay greater attention on budgetary allocation process as this will ensure that those sufficient funds are allocated to every program.