Amuru civil servants turn to money lenders to refund stolen PDM cash
According to recently published data by the PDM Secretariat on districts that mismanaged the PDM funds, Amuru received a total of Shs412.1 million. and lost lost Shs113 million. PHOTO | FILE
Four civil servants at Amuru District Local Government have reportedly turned to money lenders to refund the funds they allegedly misappropriated under the Parish Development Model (PDM) programme.
Early this month, Amuru District’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Thomson Obong ordered officials to return Shs113m that they diverted to themselves.
The officials include district planner, production officer, Secretary to the district service commission, and the district commercial officer.
Information obtained from the CAO’s office indicates that the officials deducted Shs1.9 million from the funds meant to be disbursed as a revolving fund to each of the 58 Sacco groups of the district.
Mr Obong told Daily Monitor in an interview on Monday, that the accused had been integrated into the district’s PDM supervising and implementing team.
He said the four have placed their land titles as collateral to pick loans from the banks before the deadline.
Mr Obong said some money lenders had contacted the district to confirm the staff.
“My district staff are now running around to money lenders, others are placing their land titles as collateral to be able to borrow money to refund us,” he said.
He also said by Monday, the officials were jointly left with Shs8.5 million.
When contacted for comments, the production officer and commercial Officer declined to speak over the matter.
They referred this reporter to the CAO whom they said speaks on their behalf.
PDM project
According to recently published data by the PDM Secretariat on districts that mismanaged the PDM funds, Amuru received a total of Shs412.1 million.
It disbursed Shs298.2 million while Shs113.8m is missing.
The district used part of the funds to recruit parish chiefs, form and train parish committees and Saccos. Other funds were used to procure tools and gadgets as well as handle administrative costs.
Other districts
Available data indicates that while Amuru lost Shs113 million, Nwoya lost Shs208.5 million of the Shs312.6 million it received.
Of the Shs831.3m that Agago received, Shs49.4m was lost, of the Shs511.6m that Kitgum received, it lost Shs417m, and Gulu lost Shs9.5m of the Shs333.9m it received.
