The Hon. (Mrs.) Oshani Umanga

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chairperson of Committees, I am directing this question to the Hon. Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.

¶ 02 For a long period, each Hon. Member of Parliament was provided a decentralized provision of Rs. 10 million from the Budget. However, due to very low-yielding activities carried out under those provisions, there was severe public criticism. On that basis, from last year these provisions were given directly to the District Coordinating Committees instead of through MPs. Accordingly, I pose the following questions:

¶ 03 1. Will the District Decentralized Programme be implemented for the year 2025 in the same manner as in previous years?

¶ 04 2. If not, what is the new procedure implemented for the District Decentralized Programme?

¶ 05 3. During the past 10 years, how much money has been annually expended under the District Decentralized Programme?

¶ 06 4. What were the main objectives expected in 2024 by assigning the District Decentralized Programme to the District Coordinating Committees?

¶ 07 5. What are the guidelines and formal procedures given to the District Coordinating Committee regarding the utilization, allocation, and initiation of these provisions?

¶ 08 6. What measures has the present Government taken to maintain some equity at district and local levels when annually distributing these provisions?

¶ 09 7. What is the monitoring and evaluation mechanism implemented by the Government to assess whether this procedure is successful?