APAC – The government has excluded members of the Parish Development Committees [PDCs] as well as politicians at the LCII level from benefiting from the Parish Development Model [ PDM ].
The PDM was launched in February 2022 by President Yoweri Museveni to help every poor household in Uganda engage in income-generating activities so that they can be able to move into the money economy.
Out of the Shs 100 million earmarked for each parish in the country every financial year, 30 percent goes to the women, 30 percent to youth, 10 to PWDs, 10 to the elderly, and 20 percent goes to the general community and men.
However, while addressing the PDCs and the PDM SACCO executive committee members at Apac Scouts Hall in Apac Municipality on Thursday, Julius Kapwepwe, the technical advisor at the PDM Secretariat in Kampala, said the PDCs and the LCII leaders have been excluded from benefiting from the programme.
“The PDCs or LCII chairpersons and the elected leaders your money which has been waiting for you is under Emyooga but you have refused to get it. Some of you borrowed and refused to pay back. Please don’t go for PDM, it was not prepared for you. The LCIIs and the executive members who quietly borrowed the PDM funds are hereby requested to refund it,” he said.
However, under the new guidelines, Kapwepwe said the PDM SACCO leaders and the LCI executive committee members have been given a green light to borrow money from the parish revolving fund [PRF].
“The PDM SACCO leaders, the LCI Chairpersons and your Executives, the President said you are free to borrow money from PDM. You should also join the enterprise groups and apply for the loan, “he said, adding that the government will wire Shs 250,000 to each PDC account to facilitate the smooth running of the PDM activities.
Felicia Kanakunda, the regional coordinator PDM Secretariat in charge Lango Sub-region said each household is supposed to benefit Shs 1 million. “We have gotten concerns that some PDM SACCO Chairpersons are giving beneficiaries Shs 300,000 some are giving Shs 500,000 but the minimum amount to be given to each household is Shs1mln,” she said.
Kanakunda warned the PDM SACCO Leaders and the parish chiefs against extorting money from the beneficiaries, saying they will be arrested.
“The president [Museveni] is aware of the good work you are doing and the challenges you are going through but the government has added Shs 100,000 on top of salaries for the parish chiefs and the town agents countrywide to facilitate the PDM activities. Whoever is extorting money from the PDM beneficiaries is doing it at his/her own risk,” she said.
The warning follows concerns of extortion of fund from PDM beneficiaries allegedly by PDM SACCO leaders prompting the RDC George Abudul to halt the PDM activities in both Apac Municipality and the district.
“In only a space of one week I registered 120 complaints from the members of the community so this was very alarming. They were preciously issues of extorting money. They were people who were recruited by the SACCO chairpersons and also the parish chiefs to do profiling in the name of volunteering but when they reached the ground they started charging each household a minimum of Shs 12,000 to Shs 50,000. This is against the guideline that was issued lately by the president [Museveni],” he said.
“I am very excited that from tomorrow the people of Apac are free to continue with PDM activities because we have sat and resolved. The issues which have been raised I am happy today we had a team from PDM Secretariat and they retaliated on how much one should get because they were also a point of exploitation. Every household is supposed to receive Shs 1mln,” he said.
PDM SACCO leaders react
Bonny Okello, the PDM SACCO Chairperson of Adok Ward in Apac municipality said, “The first challenge we had was about getting the data to enter details of the beneficiaries. There was no money which was allocated in the SACCOs to facilitate those buying the data. If you move around in these hotels within the town you find the SACCO leaders in the corridors and their town agents looking for free data in the corridors.”
On the new directive of issuing a minimum of Shs 1 million to each household. Molly Akwir, the treasurer of Awir PDM SACCO from Awir ward in Agulu Division fears the directive is most likely to affect the loan repayments since not all beneficiaries qualify to get this amount [Shs 1mln].
Apac district and Apac Municipality received Shs 5 billion under the PDM to benefit the poor households still trapped in the subsistence economy. So far, 890 households have already received Shs 890mln, according to data from the PDM focal point offices.
https://thecooperator.news/minister-kwiycwiny-urges-pdm-beneficiaries-to-embrace-coffee-growing/
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