Africa-Press – Uganda. Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has established that some beneficiaries of the Covid-19 relief cash in Mbale City and Tororo Municipality were civil servants.
The committee led by Kumi Municipality legislator, Mr Silas Augon, conducted a fact-finding mission early this week and unearthed some disturbing details.
The government ring-fenced the funds for vulnerable groups ranging from categories such as taxi drivers, conductors, boda boda riders, slum dwellers, street, and hair dressers.
PAC, however, discovered that elderly women were registered as beneficiaries under the categories of boda boda riders and drivers.
For instance Rose Nabutiti, 86, was registered as a boda boda rider while Adnan Namaisi, 86, was classified as a musician yet he is not.
“Many people who were not among the vulnerable categories were identified, registered and they received the money as genuine beneficiaries,” Mr Augon, said.
Sunday Monitor has also learnt that officials edited the list of the beneficiaries sent to them by village chairpersons and included their relatives as well as colleagues in civil service.
The Tororo Town Clerk, Mr Paul Omoko, told PAC that municipal officials used the Emyooga database to identify beneficiaries.
Some boda boda riders were, however, reportedly asked to pay money before they could be registered.
“As district, we were allocated an indicative figure of 3,785 beneficiaries from different categories and only 84 were not paid because of a mismatch in names,” Mr Omoko said.
The Tororo District Woman MP, Ms Sarah Opendi, was perplexed after discovering that Village Health Teams or VHTs were included amongst beneficiaries.
“A big number of people, especially the taxi drivers, who submitted their names did not receive the money,”Ms Opendi said.
PAC’s findings also reveal that while 300 artistes were registered only 199 names were forwarded for payment.
