KIKUUBE, September 29, 2026 — Leaders in the Bunyoro Sub-region have called on the Government of Uganda to consider procuring transport for officials implementing the Parish Development Model [PDM] to enhance supervision of the programme.
The PDM initiative was launched in February 2022 to move 3.5 million households across the country from subsistence to the money economy. Under the programme, beneficiaries receive Shs1 million each in the form of a soft loan to invest in selected enterprises such as piggery, poultry keeping, fruit growing and dairy farming, among others.
Speaking at the Local Government Regional Budget Consultative Workshop for the 2027/28 financial year in Hoima City, the leaders said the issue of transport for parish chiefs, who are among the key implementers of PDM, should be prioritised.
Regan Tumusiime, the Kagadi district LCV Chairman, said each parish receives Shs 100 million annually for beneficiaries, but parish chiefs are not provided with transport facilitation to enable them to effectively supervise the programme.
He noted that some districts have large parishes equivalent in size to three parishes, making it difficult for parish chiefs to monitor and supervise beneficiaries because of the lack of transport.
Tumusiime said that when government started implementing the programme in August 2023, it promised to provide parish chiefs with a monthly allowance of Shs 100,000 and bicycles to enable them to move around and monitor beneficiaries.
However, he said that since 2023, no bicycles had been provided to parish chiefs, who are among the main implementers of the programme, leaving them struggling with transport challenges.
He said the lack of transport was a major challenge affecting the implementation of the programme and urged the Government to consider the issue during the budgeting process for the 2027/28 financial year.
Wandera Atuhairwe Twairi, the Buliisa district LCV Chairman, said parish chiefs were at the forefront of implementing PDM but were not adequately facilitated.
“PDM has one problem, which is lack of facilitation for the parish chiefs, and they are the ones in charge of the programme. They normally complain that PDM was poorly designed because there is not a single coin removed from the Shs 1 million given to beneficiaries to facilitate the parish chief. This challenge is causing issues such as extortion and lack of supervision of beneficiaries,” he said.
He said government needed to prioritise providing transport for parish chiefs as part of the budgeting process.
During the meeting, the leaders also raised concerns about the size of some administrative units, saying the Shs 100 million allocated to each parish was inadequate, particularly in areas with large populations.
Robinson Mugarura, the Mugabi District speaker in Kabarole, said some parishes were too large to be adequately served by the annual PDM allocation.
“Our areas, parishes, are too big. For example, the Government is implementing PDM with each parish getting Shs100 million every year. This money is not enough, given the size of the parishes. We have parishes which are equivalent to a sub-county. The people in such parishes will need to wait for about 10 years to benefit from this money,” he said, urging government to consider increasing the PDM allocation.
John Mweiroha, the Commissioner of Budget at the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, said providing transport to parish chiefs was necessary, but the Government currently had no funds to procure transport means.
However, he challenged local government authorities, including sub-county chiefs and chief administrative officers, to find ways of supporting parish chiefs with transport as they travel to supervise and monitor the programme.
The State Minister for Microfinance at the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Shartis Kutesa Musherure, urged the leaders to clearly outline their priorities so that they could be integrated into the National Budget Conference.
She also advocated for the enforcement of key budget reforms to strengthen budget discipline, credibility and accountability.
Musherure said government continued to expand fiscal space and increase resources to local governments, but a significant challenge remained in translating these resources into quality services for citizens.
She said persistent staff absenteeism, weak performance, the return of unspent wage resources despite staffing gaps, and weak supervision by accounting officers and heads of departments contributed to poor performance.
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