Hoima City: Implementation of PDM messed up
HOIMA – Implementers of the Parish Development Model [PDM] who include parish chiefs, town agents, and commercials officers in Hoima City have been blamed for the slow progress of the government programme initiated to fight household poverty in Uganda.
Jovelyn Kaliisa, the deputy national coordinator PDM expressed dismay during a sensitisation meeting organised for the beneficiaries and government officials in Hoima City.
Two meetings were conducted recently at Bwikya Church of Uganda in Hoima East Division and Busiisi Division headquarters in Hoima West Divisions aimed at correcting several mistakes identified with the implementation of the PDM.
Speaking in the meetings, Kaliisa expressed concern that the parish chiefs and others did not guide members of the PDM SACCO executive committees in giving loans to the beneficiaries.
According to her, some beneficiaries had been allocated Shs 200,000, Shs 500,000, and Shs 800,000 yet the PDM guidelines stipulate that each beneficiary should get at least Shs 1 million.
“When they found out that the money which had been wired to the accounts of the wards was not enough for all the group members to get sh1 million each, the committees divided the money amongst the members. There is no sharing in PDM. If you give a member Shs 200, 000 what will it help?” She said.
She continued that some of the beneficiaries appearing on the lists are ineligible for the PDM, with some of the beneficiaries having benefited from the Emyooga Programme, which goes against the PDM guidelines.
Further, it was found out that people used the national identification cards of their friends and relatives to register for the PDM, which also goes against the PDM guidelines, even though it was also discovered some parish chiefs had registered to benefit from the programme.
Kaliisa, therefore, halted the disbursement of the money to the beneficiaries, directing directed the parish chiefs and town agents to work with the PDM SACCO committees to correct mistakes before the money is given to the beneficiaries.
“Because the parish chiefs were not available to help the people, people decided to help themselves and they ended up making mistakes,” she said.
However, she called on the registered beneficiaries who will miss on the money to remain calm, saying that every quarter, the government will be disbursing Shs 25 million to the bank accounts of the PDM SACCOs.
Under the PDM, government is committed to giving each of the 10,594 parishes in Uganda Shs 100mln revolving fund each financial year for the beneficiaries to engage in commercial production. The programme runs for five years, beginning with the financial year 2022/2023.
Ashraf Swalleh Kajuma, the PDM focal person in Hoima City noted that most of the beneficiaries were rejected by the PDM Information System due to a mismatch of the information that the beneficiaries provided during registration.
Badru Mugabi, the Hoima city resident commissioner, regretted the challenges which he said had delayed the disbursement of the money to beneficiaries and promised to follow up to ensure that the mistakes get corrected so that people get money to develop themselves.
Hoima City has so far received over Shs 770 million to benefit 16 PDM SACCOS.
Janet Namirembe, one of the beneficiaries from Kyakariba PDM SACCO said they were promised to get to invest in the first planting season which ended without them getting a single coin.
The PDM launched in February 2022, targets to move 3.5mln households still trapped in subsistence economy to the money economy through commercial production.
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