Kabarole: Lack of information impedes implementation of PDM

KABAROLE – The Kabarole district LCV chairperson, Richard Rwabuhinga has expressed concern over the information gap in the implementation of the Parish Development Model [PDM], saying it could derail the progress of the government programme.

Rwabuhinga said guidelines for the implementation of the PDM have been changing now and then and yet the responsible officers have done less in sensitising the beneficiaries of the programme.

“I have identified some gaps in the implementation of PDM programme. One of the gaps is that district leaders, especially the councilors have never been sensitised nor trained about the implementation of the programme which is a big challenge. And some of the information is not accessed by the parish chiefs who are the lead implementers of the programme,” he said.

He said this during the council sitting on Friday at the district headquarters in Kitumba.

Rwabuhinga revealed that the meeting called recently by the chief administrative officer to train district leaders was aborted as there was no one to take the invitees through the PDM guidelines.

He however noted that each of the 52 parishes in the district received the Shs 25 million that was recently released making it to the total of Shs 59.2mln so far received by each PDM SACCO.

“All the 52 parishes received the recently released Shs 25mln each but they are yet to access the money. Though all this money is on their respective SACCO accounts, they cannot access it because they are yet to have their signatories introduced to the bank,” he said.

He said an agreement is expected to be signed early this week so that signatories can be introduced to the bank to access the money.

The Kabarole resident district commissioner, Festus Bandeeba said the biggest challenge has been lack of communication between the district technical team and the parish chiefs, an information gap he said is not good in of the running programme.

He however noted that there is need to sensitise all the beneficiaries and implementers to avoid more problems.

“Most of the districts have already rolled out the funds and the beneficiaries are using it but most of them have faced some challenges because of the hurry to withdraw the money and yet guidelines keep changing,” he said.

The Burahya County Member of Parliament, Steven Kagwera urged the district technical team to visit the grassroots and sensitise people there about PDM for it to be successful.

He said leaders and the technical team can either fail the programme or make it a success.

Launched in February 2022, the PDM aims at moving 3.5 million households still in the subsistence economy to the money economy.

The parish is the epicenter of multi-sectoral community development, implementation, supervision, monitoring, and accountability.

The LCII chairpersons and parish chiefs are responsible for political stewardship in the implementation of the programme with support from the sub-county and district technical planning committees.

https://thecooperator.news/dont-spend-pdm-money-on-parties-namisindwa-residents-warned/

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