PDM: Kwania recovers Shs 60mln illegally given out

KWANIA, January 25, 2024 – Kwania district has recovered over Shs 60 million illegally disbursed to some people under the Parish Development Model [PDM].

The PDM, initiated to move 3.5mln households in Uganda from the subsistence economy to the money economy, was launched in February 2022.

The Kwania district LC5 Chairperson, Geoffrey Ogwal Adyebo revealed recently that they are facing challenges in the implementation of the programme.

He says PDM is a good programme because it targets the right beneficiaries but it is dogged with challenges that need to be addressed by sensitising the beneficiaries and implementers about the programme’s guidelines.

He highlighted some of the challenges identified in the implementation of the programme include multiple payments, corruption, extortion of the beneficiaries, poor data collection and illegal enrollment of relatives and friends.

President Yoweri Museveni launched the PDM with its objective to increase production, across the agricultural value chain as to improve incomes of the poor households.

According to the Minister of Finance, Matia Kasaija government has already provided Shs 2.3 trillion to 10,594 parishes since the programme kicked off. It will run for five years.

“As a leader, these are the challenges I have identified during our monitoring and I think it should be corrected and people see the impact,” Ogwal said.

Ogwal said he discovered multiple payments in eight parishes which include Owiny Shs  9mln, Aro-Anga Shs 12mln, Ojok Dok Shs 8mln, Banya Shs 5mln, Agwiciri Shs 7mln.

According to him, Kwania district has 49 parishes and under the programme, it received Shs 5.2 billion.

“We found that the biggest problem is the SACCO executives. A number of them are not computer-literate. What they did was to hire people who ended up messing up the process by sending money to themselves and close relatives,” he said.

“These people [the SACCO executives] also became selfish in appraisal and selecting the beneficiaries without involving the loan committee,” he added.

Under the PDM, each beneficiary receives about Shs 1mln to fund an enterprise of their choice, such as coffee, grains, fruits, dairy farming, fish farming, piggery, poultry, and beekeeping among several others.

However, Ogwal said despite the existence of some challenges impeding the programme, there is some impact it has created among women and a few men.

He lauded President Museveni and his government for launching the programme, saying for the first time the government is sending money directly to the parish, which he said is the second smallest administrative unit in the country.

“I subscribe to Uganda People Congress but I want to thank President Museveni for the initiative because this is not like other programmes which ended up failing,” he said.

https://thecooperator.news/mbale-city-leaders-start-monitoring-of-pdm-progress/

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