Don’t’ touch PDM money, civil servants warned

MBALE – The Parish Development Model [PDM deputy national coordinator, Jovrine Kaliisa Kyomukama, has warned civil servants in Bugisu Sub-region against misuse of the money meant for the programme, saying they stand to face the wrath of the law.

The warning follows the arrest of Simon Massa, the Mbale City PDM focal person who is also the city’s production officer after he allegedly embezzled Shs 8 million meant to pay members who sit on Parish Development Committees [PDCs].

Massa was compelled to refund the money that had reportedly gone missing thus crippling the programme.

Kaliisa said the PDM is a government effort to pull poor Ugandans into the money economy.

“Any official that will be caught stealing the PDM funds will face the strong arm of the law. The civil servants should desist from misuse of public funds,” Kaliisa said.

Speaking to journalists in Mbale City, Kaliisa warned that the misuse of public funds will not be tolerated by government.

She said every coin allocated to a government department or project should fully be accounted for.

Kaliisa encouraged the district production officers and parish chiefs to monitor and evaluate PDM enterprise projects presented for implementation by the different groups.

“The parish systems have been working, and your job as technical people is more of monitoring and evaluation. This is an economic war that we must fight together as Ugandans to secure the future,” she said.

Kaliisa further warned to deal with any government technocrat who will ask for a bribe from PDM beneficiaries in exchange for a service.

She said the PDM Secretariat has put in place a rapid response unit to monitor all transactions from the local to national level.

Mbale resident city commissioner, John Rex Aachilla, said Massa was arrested after failing to give clear accountability of Shs 8mln meant to pay members of PDCs who participated in the training.

“The PDM focal person [Massa]has accountability on the paper but there is no proof that he paid them,” Aachilla said.

Meanwhile, the PDM Secretariat has said that the PDM funds for enterprise groups in Bugisu Sub-region will be released next week, according to Irene Muwanguzi, the enterprise development specialist in PDM Secretariat.

Muwanguzi said the money now on PDM SACCO accounts would hit enterprise groups’ bank accounts by February 28, 2023 to enable beneficiaries, especially farmers to prepare for the new planting season that kicks off next month.

She made the remarks on Friday in Bududa district while meeting the core leadership at the district level and technical teams to train the trainers who will then train the enterprise groups at the sub-counties and parishes, after which the disbursement of the money will take place.

“This is the season when this money needs to be out. Soon we will be receiving rains. Those who are going to invest in agricultural enterprises are getting late,” Muwanguzi said.

Under the PDM, beans, Maize, groundnuts, coffee and bananas are some of the enterprises the beneficiaries will engage in.

George Owanyi, the RDC Bududa warned the civil servants in the district to distance themselves from misusing the PDM money.

“I have information that they [civil servants] have also applied to benefit from the PDM, but if I get them receiving this money I will arrest and force them to pay back the funds,” Owanyi said.

The Bududa district LCV Vice chairperson, Rachel Martha Nabulo told this reporter that PDM activities are moving on well in the district.

“We have not seen arrests of chief administrative officers or production officers like in other districts. We are happy our people are going to receive this money in time and use it well because we have already prepared them,” she said.

Nabulo said she was happy the PDM money is going direct to accounts of the beneficiaries.

The PDM is a new poverty alleviation programme aimed at moving 39 percent of Ugandan households still in subsistence farming to the money economy, with government expected to invest over One Trillion Shiilings every financial year, beginning with the 2022/2023 financial year.

The government intends to run the programme for five years, where each of the 10,594 parishes is expected to receive Shs 100 million each financial year.

https://thecooperator.news/ibanda-civil-servants-warned-over-misuse-of-pdm-funds/

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