Inadequate funding and fake groups in Luwero town council have marred the implementation of the Parish Development Model (PDM) program.
In June this year, Luwero district disbursed Shillings 7.9 million to each parish in Luwero town council to kickstart the implementation of PDM.
The parishes are Kavule, Kiwogozi , Luwero Central, Luwero South East , Luwero West and PWD.
However, none of the beneficiaries has withdrawn the money because of restrictions, which has triggered discontent among the residents. So far 144 groups have been formed to benefit from the PDM program in Luwero town council.
Dan Ssebakijje, the PDM chairperson for Luwero South East Parish, says that they were told that each parish will receive Shillings 17 million and another Shillings 100million afterward to help people out of poverty.
He, however, says that they were surprised to receive only Shillings 7.9 million without any explanation.
Ssebakijje adds that residents are yearning for the money to invest in their enterprises but they can’t do so because of the restricted access to the funds.
John Buwembo, the LC 3 Chairperson of Luwero town council, says that they restricted access to money after receiving complaints from parishes that some of the selected groups are unknown and fake.
He says that the town council is currently verifying the group, adding that they have so far detected 10 ghost groups.
Emmanuel Nsubuga, the Kavule Parish councilor, says that multiple groups were registered with the same certificates, which points to fraud.
But Namugera Nkokonyole, the LC 1 Chairperson of Kakookolo village, says that the questionable groups are the result of the town council officials mixing up their registration certificates. Namugera says that during the verification, the leaders will be able to provide original certificates and prove the existence of the groups.
- Kidda Makubuya, the Coordinator of the Parish Development Model Programme in Luwero district explained that they received Shillings 809million, which they distributed across the 101 parishes as they wait for the top-up. Because we received low funds, we decided to distribute it equally in 101 parishes and each ended up getting 7.9 million Shillings,” Makubuya said.
He said that each parish will receive the balance and another 100 million Shillings as promised by the government. Across the district, none of the parishes has spent the funds because the groups are not yet fully formed and oriented among other irregularities. at least 1848 groups have been registered to benefit from PDM across the district.
The Minister of Local Government Raphael Magyezi revealed on the weekend that the government will delay releasing more PDM funds because the formation of saving groups and associations is not yet complete across the country. Magyezi said the money will be released after the groups have been formed in all the parishes and oriented.
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