Low recovery of PDM funds in Nakaseke worries legislators as only Shs 28mln recovered

NAKASEKE, September 3, 2026 — Members of Parliament on Public Accounts Committee [Local Government] have raised concern over the low recovery of funds disbursed under the Parish Development Model [PDM] in Nakaseke district after learning that only Shs 28.2 million has been recovered over the past year.

The committee, chaired by Betty Nambooze, heard that Nakaseke district received Shs 25 billion, which was disbursed to SACCOs under the programme. Of this amount, Shs 6.46 billion was expected to be recovered during the 2025/2026 financial year under the Parish Revolving Fund [PRF] arrangement.

The district PDM Focal Person, Robert Kaggwa, told the committee that 2,500 families had benefited from the funding. However, he said the Shs 28.2 million recovered so far had been paid voluntarily by beneficiaries.

Nambooze said the district’s recovery performance was unsatisfactory.

“Government is investing a lot of money. If Nakaseke alone has been given Shs 25 billion and they have failed to recover even Shs 100 million in the first phase of recovery, how are other districts performing on the Parish Revolving Fund?” Nambooze asked.

She tasked Kaggwa to explain how the district and government planned to recover the outstanding Shs 6.46 billion.

“Tell us how we can get this money back, and show us that you have done your part and that it is the beneficiaries refusing to pay,” Nambooze added.

Kaggwa attributed the poor recovery rate to the absence of clear modalities to guide PDM beneficiaries on repayment after the expiry of the two-year grace period.

He said recoveries are now being made through the Wendi application, where money repaid by beneficiaries is deposited directly into the SACCO account.

“The recovery is now via the Wendi app, where the money paid back goes to the SACCO account. The beneficiary and the SACCO chairperson receive a message, and it is also received by the Ministry of Finance,” Kaggwa said.

He added that communication had been sent to accounting officers at lower local governments to monitor and enforce the recovery of PDM funds.

“We are also sensitising the public through radio talk shows and community meetings. We take them through the guidelines for recovery of these funds,” Kaggwa said.

Meanwhile, the committee also learned of challenges in recovering funds disbursed under the Youth Livelihood Programme [YLP].

Questions were raised over beneficiary groups listed by Nakaseke District Community Development Officer [DCDO] Denis Batalingaya, with legislators hearing that some of the funds were not received by the groups presented to the committee.

According to the Auditor General’s report on Nakaseke District Local Government for the audit year ended December 2025, only Shs 3 million had been recovered from beneficiary groups against an outstanding balance of Shs 923 million.

“Failure to repay in a timely manner implies that other eligible groups were unable to access the funds. The accounting officer explained that most of the groups had disintegrated and therefore, it was practically unfeasible to enforce recovery,” the report reads in part.

Batalingaya said invitations had been sent to the groups for engagements over the outstanding funds, but the respective group leaders did not honour them.

He added that quarterly field reports on the matter had been submitted to the Chief Administrative Officer.

The PDM, a government initiative launched in February 2022 to fight household poverty, provides a soft loan of Shs 1 million per beneficiary for investment in selected enterprises in the agriculture sector, such as coffee, fish farming, poultry keeping, piggery and crop farming among others. According to the programme guidelines, beneficiaries repay the loan to their PRFs with a 6 percent interest after a grace period of two years.

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