The continued disbursement of Constituency Development Fund (CDF) allocations to Members of Parliament has come under scrutiny amid mounting arrears owed to schools under the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM), with Gokwe-Kabuyuni legislator, Spencer Tshuma, arguing that greater priority should be given to funding vulnerable learners.
Tshuma said the failure to pay BEAM fees had forced schools to shoulder the financial burden of educating disadvantaged children, prompting MPs to divert a significant portion of their CDF allocations towards school infrastructure and other education-related needs.
Speaking during the pre-budget seminar in Bulawayo last week, Tshuma questioned whether the government was prioritising its education funding obligations appropriately, given the growing debts owed to schools.
“Looking at the CDF, when we are not paying BEAM to schools, are we not digging a grave? The money for CDF is going towards work mostly in schools where there are children who are supposed to be on BEAM. That money could help them,” he said.
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Tshuma said the situation had left other critical community development needs unattended as MPs increasingly channelled constituency funds towards schools.
“If you look at the many projects done under CDF, the funds were going towards schools. We are not looking at other areas because we are concerned that schools learn,” he said.
He said schools in rural communities had increasingly been forced to accommodate learners under BEAM without receiving corresponding payments from the government.
“In the past two to three years, school authorities were taking up 60 percent of children who were under BEAM. Last year, where I come from in Gokwe-Kabuyuni, there were some schools that were owed US$40 000. Looking at the debt and the many schools, will you be able to pay this money?” Tshuma asked.
His concerns come amid growing pressure on the government to clear outstanding BEAM payments, which have left schools struggling to meet operational costs while some vulnerable learners face the risk of being excluded from education.
In August, Deputy Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Mercy Dinha told Parliament that BEAM arrears had accumulated to US$292 492 316.46 between 2023 and 2025.
According to Dinha, the programme supported 1 856 996 learners in 2023, leaving government owing schools approximately US$62.6 million by the end of that year.
In 2024, another 1 261 140 learners benefited from the programme, adding US$117.8 million to the outstanding debt, while 950 192 beneficiaries were supported in 2025, resulting in a further US$112.2 million in unpaid tuition fees, levies and examination charges.
Dinha attributed the growing backlog to limited funding and delays in Treasury disbursements.
She said the Treasury had released ZiG84.8 million during the year to partially clear arrears owed to mainstream and special schools.
Meanwhile, Zanu PF Chief Whip in the National Assembly Pupurai Togarepi called for an increase in CDF allocations from the current US$50 0000 per constituency to US$200 000, arguing the fund had demonstrated its value in supporting community development.
He said the impact of CDF and devolution funding in constituencies justified additional allocations to strengthen local development initiatives.
In response to these submissions, Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, acknowledged the contribution of the two funding streams but said the government would assess the proposed CDF increase against available resources.
“On increasing CDF to US$200 000, we will review that and see what is manageable within the budget envelope. Those are useful proposals. We have seen the positive impact in our various constituencies, and we will take that proposal positively,” he said.
The finance minister said devolution funding accounted for five percent of the national budget, admitting the government had performed better in releasing CDF allocations than devolution funds.
“Devolution was five percent of the national budget, but we have done better on the CDF release than on devolution. We will keep pushing to improve budget execution on devolution funding,” he said.
On the outstanding BEAM payments, the finance minister said the programme was undergoing an audit aimed at identifying beneficiaries who did not qualify for assistance, adding that the exercise would help government direct resources towards genuinely vulnerable learners.
He said the new Auditor-General, Vimbai Chikwenhere, would provide details on the timeline for completing the audit.
“The idea is to weed out those who don’t deserve to be supported but have been benefiting. We will start clearing the areas, supporting the real vulnerable schools. There was a recent release of about US$100 million two weeks ago to clear some arrears,” Prof Ncube said.
However, responding to MP Tshuma’s suggestion that BEAM should receive greater priority over CDF, the finance minister maintained the government needed to fund both programmes rather than choose one at the expense of the other.
“CDF versus BEAM, look, we need to do both, CDF and BEAM. We don’t want to choose one over the other. We have done better on the CDF than on BEAM, but we are clearing the BEAM arrears. We have already confirmed we will accelerate and clear more arrears and clean it up,” he said.
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