County Development Fund Allocation
A district development committee has L$120,000 to allocate for the year. Three proposals are on the table: renovating a primary school roof for L$40,000, which would allow 600 pupils to attend during the rainy season; buying essential medicines for the clinic for L$25,000, which would serve about 3,000 patients; and building a culvert on the main footpath for L$70,000, which would prevent the path from flooding for about three months each year and allow about 450 market women to reach the town each week. The committee chair wants to fund the culvert and the school roof, leaving the clinic short. A member argues that health should always come first. The district has no reserve fund, and any unspent money must be returned to the county. Community meetings show that the clinic currently has no malaria drugs for two months.
1. Using at least two explicit criteria, compare the three proposals. Show your calculations and explain which criterion you would weight most heavily and why.
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Cost per direct beneficiary: school roof = 40,000/600 = about L$67 per pupil; clinic medicines = 25,000/3,000 = about L$8 per patient; culvert = 70,000/450 market women = about L$156 per market woman, though it also benefits other footpath users, so that figure overstates the cost per beneficiary. Urgency: the clinic has had no malaria drugs for two months, so its need is current and health-related; the school roof and culvert matter mainly in the rainy season. Scale: the clinic serves the most people per dollar. I would weight urgency most heavily because untreated malaria can kill, and the clinic shortage is already happening. On that criterion the clinic comes first. The school roof is second because 600 pupils lose instruction, and the culvert is third despite its high cost and seasonal importance.
2. The chair proposes funding the culvert and the school roof (L$110,000) and returning L$10,000 to the county. Identify the opportunity cost of this choice, and explain one accountability risk in returning the L$10,000 rather than allocating it.
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The opportunity cost is the clinic medicines that could have been bought for L$25,000, serving about 3,000 patients, plus the malaria treatment that is currently unavailable. The chair's package spends 110,000 and gives up the health proposal for the sake of the culvert and roof; the L$10,000 returned cannot be used for the clinic because the county takes it back. An accountability risk is that returning money may look like underspending rather than good management. If the committee returns funds while a clinic has no malaria drugs, residents may conclude that the budget process does not respond to need, and the committee may lose credibility or future allocations. There is also a risk that the L$10,000 is returned without a public explanation, which makes it harder to audit whether the full L$120,000 was properly accounted for.
3. Propose an allocation of the full L$120,000 that addresses the clinic's immediate drug shortage and at least one other proposal. Justify the amounts and state one monitoring measure.
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Allocate L$25,000 to clinic medicines, L$40,000 to the school roof, and L$55,000 to the culvert, with the community providing labour and local materials to close the L$15,000 gap. This funds the urgent health need, keeps 600 pupils in school during the rains, and starts the culvert rather than losing the whole project. The culvert is the weakest part because L$55,000 may not complete it; the committee should get a written engineer's estimate before releasing funds. If the gap cannot be closed, I would drop the culvert and add the L$55,000 to the clinic and school, but that leaves the footpath problem. Monitoring: post all receipts and a monthly expenditure sheet at the town hall and clinic, and have the committee report at an open community meeting. That makes the trade-off public and reduces the chance of money disappearing.