Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development Permanent Secretary for Technical Services, Nicholas Phiri says the Ministry will soon clear over K119,000,000 in arrears for the first phase of the Cash for Work Programme.
Mr Phiri stated that about 200,000 beneficiaries of the programme were not paid, and government has already put the necessary modalities to ensure that the beneficiaries are paid before the implementation of the second phase of the programme.
He indicated that government has already disbursed K22.5 million to pay beneficiaries in Lusaka District.
Mr Phiri was speaking when he officially opened an orientation workshop on the revised online Cash for Work phase II programme for Principal officers from all local authorities in the country at Chalimbana Local Government Training Institute in Chongwe.
The Permanent Secretary described the implementation of the first phase of the programme as a success.
” The Cash for Work phase one was a success, which provided temporary employment and financial empowerment to over 3.5 million people across the country. We spent over K2 billion to implement the programme countrywide,” Mr. Phiri said.
He also commended Smart Zambia Institute for developing an online system that will be used by local authorities and other key players in communities to implement the Cash for Work phase II programme.
Mr Phiri said the online system will address some anomalies which were noted under the first phase of the programme such as duplication of names of beneficiaries and mismatch of National Registration Card numbers of beneficiaries.
He further urged all the principal officers to also sensitise residents in their various localities on the Grievance Redress Mechanism which was available on the new system.
Smart Zambia Institute National Coordinator, Percy Chinyama stated the Cash for Work online system is among the technological empowerment initiatives of councils in the country, which will boost service delivery to the public and enhance transparency.
Mr Chinyama said the system will eliminate a lot of challenges which affected the implementation of the first phase of the programme such as double dipping.
He urged local authorities to utilise the online Cash for Work system and other digital infrastructure that the institute has developed for councils to enhance revenue collection and delivery of social services to the public in a transparent manner.
