SOROTI CITY, January 30, 2025 – The Soroti Resident City Commissioner [RCC], Peter Pex Paak, has warned parish chiefs against misusing the IT gadgets provided to enhance the Parish Development Programme [PDM], a government programme targeting the active poor in the country.
RCC Paak issued the warning during a recent meeting where parish chiefs, LC II chairpersons, and Parish Development Committee [PDC] chairpersons were handed 54 iPads or tablets to be used for monitoring the programme that receives over Shs 1 trillion every financial year, from which each parish in Uganda receives Shs 100 million.
He cautioned them against mortgaging the gadgets to money lenders, transferring them to their children or relatives, or using them for anything other than their intended purpose. “You must use the gadgets for the intended purpose,” Paak stated.
According to the RCC, parish chiefs are expected to track PDM activities using the gadgets and ensure that beneficiaries’ data is regularly updated.
Paak emphasised that no individual should benefit from both programmes, noting that many people need the funds to improve their livelihoods. “It’s not only one family or clan that is poor; we need everyone to benefit from the programmes that will improve their households,” he said.
One of the parish chiefs who received a tablet expressed how it would ease his work, as he had previously been doing it manually. “This tablet will help me do my work more effectively. We have been requesting these gadgets as parish chiefs,” he remarked.
The PDM, a government initiative launched in February 2022, aims to transition 3.5 million households from subsistence agriculture to a money economy. Each beneficiary of the programme receives Shs 1 million as a soft loan to invest in selected enterprises such as poultry, piggery, beekeeping, dairy, fish farming, and coffee production, among others.
The parish chiefs are the key implementers of the programme where each parish in Uganda has been designated as the epicentre of all its activities.
https://thecooperator.news/auditor-general-finds-loopholes-in-pdm-implementation/
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