LUWERO, May 1, 2024 – President Yoweri Museveni has embarked on the monitoring process of the Parish Development Model [PDM] funds to eliminate irregularities in the programme aimed at fighting poverty in poor households.
The revelation was made recently by yesterday by the Senior Presidential Advisor on Political Mobilisation, Moses Byaruhanga while launching the monitoring process at Bunnya Foundation Primary School, P.W.D Village, Luweero town council in Luwero district.
While addressing a gathering, Byaruhanga said the National Resistance Movement [NRM] government has initiated several programmes to benefit Ugandans, however, some have faced certain hindrances which the government has managed to solve or is looking forward to working on.
“In January, 1997, the Universal Primary Education [UPE] was initiated and in February, 2007, the Universal Secondary Education [USE] was introduced. Here the beneficiaries began to complain about the fees charged by the school heads. When we interrogated the school heads, they replied that they don’t have enough teachers, so they outsourced some teachers who are paid using the money which is received from parents. However, the government is still investigating the matter,” he said.
“The National Agricultural Advisory Services [NAADS] was created in 2001 to address constraints of lack of access to agricultural information, knowledge and improved technology among rural poor farmers in the country. However, the program reached a few people. And on February 26, 2022, PDM was initiated by the President as a strategy to improve service delivery and alleviate poverty at the grassroots level. However, there are some challenges which need to be ironed out,” said Byaruhanga.
He further revealed that President Museveni had appointed Hajjat Mariam Namayanja Kiwanuka as a Special Presidential Assistant to monitor PDM funds.
Byaruhanga also clarified that the maximum amount of PDM money to a beneficiary is Shs 1 million which is payable within two years. He added that the money doesn’t go back to government, but remains in the PDM SACCOs.
On people who squander government resources, Byaruhanga assured that the culprits will be arrested and dealt with according to the laws that govern the country.
The warning came after the Luwero Resident District Commissioner, Richard Bwabye’s concern about the misconduct of some government officials involved in soliciting PDM money from beneficiaries. Bwabye also disclosed he had recovered a total of Shs 61mln and was still hunting for more culprits to be arrested and charged accordingly.
On the issue of money lenders collecting National Identity Cards from borrowers in the district as collateral, Byaruhanga gave an instruction to Bwabye to ensure that the money lenders return the IDs to the owners because that is a government property.
He added that the President instructed the Attorney General to institute a law deterring money lenders from using National IDs as a collateral security.
On the other hand, Byaruhanga urged Luwero politicians to cooperate with the residents in order to deal with the rampant land wrangles in the area.
During the event, Josephus Walulya Mukasa, the PDM coordinator in Luwero Sub-county revealed that they have a total of 1,156 beneficiaries; 551 males and 605 females.
He said that the beneficiaries have prioritised the agricultural sector such as growing maize, beans, vegetables, coffee, Matooke and rearing cattle, chicken, pigs, and goats.
Walubya also noted that 70 percentof PDM money has been well utilised in the sub county whereas the remaining 30 percent of the money has issues where the beneficiaries directed it to other things like paying school fees for their children.
On her part, Hajjat Mariam Namayanja Kiwanuka, the Special Assistant to the President explained to the locals her role as the officer responsible for monitoring PDM funds across the country.
She explained that her role is to register names of all PDM beneficiaries, the amount of money they received, how they are using the money, the challenges they face, and thereafter, President Museveni will intervene accordingly.
Namayanja also said the monitoring process has begun from Luwero district and will be extended to the other parts of the country.
Meanwhile, Richard Ssimbwa, the LCIII Chairperson for Luwero Sub-county complained about the parish chiefs who extort money from the beneficiaries. He mentioned that the parish chiefs remove names of the right beneficiaries from the PDM register and replace them with the names of those who bribed them, which he said hinders the success of the programme.
The NRM Chairperson for Luwero district, Ronald Ndawula appreciated the government for introducing the PDM which government allocates over a trillion shillings every financial year.
https://thecooperator.news/soroti-city-receives-shs-550mln-pdm-funds-for-second-disbursement/
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