Africa-Press – Uganda. Beneficiaries of Parish Development Model (PDM) funds in Butebo District are crying foul after the disbursement of funds was halted over alleged anomalies that occurred during the registration process.
Authorities in the district said despite distributing the Shs6.1b PDM funds that the district received from the government to the beneficiaries’ Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations (Sacco) bank accounts, they are unable to withdraw the money because there are discrepancies with the data collected by the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance.
Mr James Okurut, the Butebo LC5 chairperson, told Daily Monitor on Monday that the funds were meant to benefit 61 groups.
“…there was a challenge with the data that was collected and entered by the Ministry of ICT. The registered beneficiaries were rejected by the system,” Mr Okurut said.
He said the issue will be addressed within two weeks so that the beneficiaries start receiving their money.
“As we speak, the district has started the verification exercise to enable the beneficiaries to open personal bank accounts,’’ Mr Okurut said.
Mr Okurut assured the beneficiaries that it wasn’t the district’s intention to delay disbursing those funds.
The district PDM focal person, Mr Joseph Kalyebi, said despite the delay, the programme is running well.
The Butebo Resident District Commissioner, Mr Paul Kalikwani, assured the beneficiaries that they would receive the money.
“The PDM is aimed at helping people at the parish level to increase their household incomes and join the money economy and nobody will fail that,” he said.
Mr Kalikwani warned the beneficiaries against engaging in non-viable enterprise if they get the money.
“The grace period of repayment is within 24 months but [there is] an additional 12 months, which brings to 36 months the period to have cleared the money,” Mr Kalikwani, said.
The Chief Administrative Officer, Ms Florence Nabukwasi, said funds are interest-free compared to commercial loans, which she said people have been accessing and at the end of the day they lose their properties.
Beneficiaries react
Mr Paul Okiror, one of those scheduled to benefit from PDM, said the delay to release the funds has had negative consequences.
“This money should have been disbursed immediately so that we can implement our selected enterprises. Other districts have got the money but us, no one and their explanation doesn’t make sense to us,” he said.
Ms Annet Nabwire, another resident expecting to benefit from PDM, said they did all the documentation and their certificates were certified but wondered what could have gone wrong.
“If they don’t have money, they should tell us. We can do other things,” she said.
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