Africa-Press – Uganda. At least 17 parishes in Tororo District have missed out on the Parish Development Model (PDM) funds that were disbursed for the last quarter.
The outgoing Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Mr Dunstan Balaba, said of the 172 parishes in the district, only 155 were approved by the Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic Development to receive the funds.
“The 17 parishes were not approved for funding but each of the eligible parishes has received Shs25 million in the last quarter on top of the first disbursement of Shs7.6 million that was remitted earlier,” he said during a handover of office at the district headquarters on Wednesday. The new CAO is Mr Gabriel Atama.
Mr Balaba said the 17 groups missed out because they were not coded.
He explained that even of the 155 parishes, nine of them failed to receive the funds due to some irregularities.
“The district has already transferred Shs33 million to the various accounts of the 146 parishes with exception of the nine whose files bounced back due to title irregularities,” he said.
However, Mr John Bosco Opio, a member of one of the groups that missed the funds, said they did everything to meet the requirements for the funds.
“Our group was even coded but we were told it was not approved. We don’t understand it because we were anxiously waiting for the funds to kick start our enterprise,” he said.
Mr Balaba added that training of farmer group leaders on enterprise selection and management has been completed and that the groups are waiting to pick their money to kick start the activities. About 88.3 percent of the households in Tororo depend on subsistence farming as the main source of livelihood.
The current poverty rate in Bukedi is 43.7 percent, with the GDP per capita of less than $135. The sub-region comprises Pallisa, Budaka, Butebo, Butaleja, Tororo and Busia.
With PDM, leaders are hopeful that poverty reduction levels in the sub-region will fall below 10 percent by 2025 if programme is well implemented.
The Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Mr Nickson Owole, said PDM will be a wakeup call for poor households to work hard and improve on their incomes.
He urged the parish chiefs, who are the pivotal in the programme implementation, to execute their duties with the highest level of commitment.
“My office is going to do close monitoring of projects and ensure that all parishes receive the money and put it into right use,” he said.
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