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Bukomansimbi officials accept to return Shs200m PDM money
What you need to know:
This followed the arrest of Bukomansimbi District Production Officer, District PMD Focal Person and two parish chiefs that were getting money from the beneficiaries claiming it is insurance fees.
The government will recover more than Shs200 million from Bukomansimbi District officials and an insurance company that had connived to deduct money advanced to every Parish Development Model (PDM) beneficiary.
This followed the arrest of Bukomansimbi District Production Officer, District PMD Focal Person and two parish chiefs that were getting money from the beneficiaries claiming it is insurance fees.
Mr Fred Pax Kalema, the Bukomansimbi Deputy Resident District Commissioner, said the arrested quartet accepted to refund the money amounting to more than 200m to the beneficiaries before they secured police bonds last Friday.
“Since they [affected district officials] have accepted to refund the money, we have allowed them to do that,” he said in an interview at the weekend.
Mr Kalema said the officials without consent of the beneficiaries initiated the process of charging Shs50,000 for what they termed as insurance fees from them which was irregular. He said the insurance company had also opened up offices in the district where PDM beneficiaries were depositing the money.
“We are going to ensure that whoever lost his/her money in this syndicate gets his money back, each beneficiary has to get Shs1m as the PDM guidelines stipulate and we shall soon start giving them [money] once it is recovered,’’ he added.
Mr Kalema warned those involved in implementing the PDM programme, saying they risk being arrested over corruption syndicates.
The district officials’ luck ran after a team from the PDM Secretariat stormed the district headquarters last Wednesday and conducted an operation in which two district officials and two parish chiefs were arrested for allegedly misusing the PDM money.
Preliminary investigations indicate that the Bigasa Sub-county parish chief was asking all PDM beneficiaries to pay Shs150,000 if they are to benefit from the programme .
It is said that the parish chief would take 100,000 and share it with his colleagues and another Shs50,000 deducted for insurance.
“It was surprising that though we were initially told that we were to get Shs1m, they have been giving us less money claiming that a certain percentage caters for paperwork and insurance fees,’’ Mr Paul Kagimu, one of the affected PDM beneficiaries, said.
The PDM programme, which was rolled out in 2022, is aimed at getting 39 percent of the country’s 43 million population that lives from hand-to-mouth out of poverty.
A section of Ugandans, especially Opposition politicians have expressed skepticism on whether PDM will achieve the desired goal of fighting household poverty.
Background
The government is expected to spend Shs1 trillion on the programme. Each of Uganda’s 10,694 parishes is expected to receive Shs100m, which is supposed to come in installments. From this, each household is expected to get Shs1m to kick-start a project and many have since received this money. At least 10,594 PDM Saccos are existing across the country of which 367 are in the districts of Greater Masaka. Bukomansimbi District alone, which has 37 parishes, received Shs3.5 billion.
