Clash over PDM money heats up

Ubos, the government’s principal body in-charge of producing reliable official statistics, early this week described household data collected thus far as “invalid” and urged the Finance ministry to delay disbursement of the PDM cash

“We shall not advise the government to release the money now because we have not completed the collection of data across the country… Until we get the right data, the government cannot release this money,” Dr Chris Mukiza, Ubos’ executive director, told journalists at Statistics House in Kampala.

Ubos, according to documents seen by Sunday Monitor, participated in the initial collection of the data it now impugns. We understand it did this in conjunction with the ICT and National Guidance ministry, as well as enumerators hired by respective districts.

The Finance ministry, meanwhile, maintains that it will give the green light once the ongoing verification of membership of PDM Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisation (Saccos) and enterprise groups is completed.

PSST letter

On July 15, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary/Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Ramathan Ggoobi, wrote to several government officials—including local government accounting officers—requesting for proof of verification of the beneficiary groups.

In the communique, Mr Ggoobi directed district representatives “to support representatives of OWC at the local governments to urgently conduct verification of the membership of the Saccos and enterprise groups in line with Pillar Three of the PDM guidelines and established checklist.”

This, he added, would “ensure the public display of the lists of the members of the Saccos and enterprise groups at parish and sub-county levels as soon as possible to promote transparency and accountability.”

The checklist for verification of beneficiary groups provides for, among others, the parish in which the PDM Sacco is formed, wealth ranking exercises conducted during community meetings, subsistence households identified in the parish, enterprise selection, enterprise group/Sacco formed and registered, compliant bank account formed, and project readiness financing agreement signed by the PDM Sacco executive.

Ubos’ reminder on July 26 followed a July 22 communique by Mr Dennis Galabuzi Ssozi, the PDM national coordinator, copied to several ministries and district local governments, urging all PDM beneficiary groups to comply with set guidelines and directing for immediate display of the names of all members at trading centres, churches, mosques, community notice boards, and other places accessible to the public within the parish.

“It is critical that prior to the verification exercise by OWC, the data collection exercise by Ministry of ICT/Ubos of the members of the households that form the enterprise groups under PDM has been done so that they can be captured on the financial system of the Parish Development Management Information System (PDMIS),” Mr Ssozi wrote.

Cause of row

The crux of the row, sources familiar with the matter told Sunday Monitor, is that Ubos— as the principal in-charge of data collection and administration—feels alienated in the administration of the PDMIS, the central registry for all beneficiary data.

The statistical agency, sources narrated on condition of anonymity to speak freely, initially wanted to be in charge of data collection, management and supervision, which role the PDM National Policy Committee chaired by President Museveni directed be taken up by the ICT and National Guidance ministry.

During the initial  data collection exercise by ICT ministry/Ubos/district enumerators, data of 4.4 million households was captured. This was more than half of the eight million households detailed in the 2014 national census. The up-to-date working figure for households in the country is 10 million.

The ICT ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Ms Amina Zawedde, did not immediately respond to our inquiries on whether they harmonised their position with Ubos on the data they co-collected.

The ministry is charged with superintending over Pillar Five of the PDM, which includes, among others, setting up the PDMIS doe validation of beneficiary data and real time tracking of performance of other pillars for the success of the latest poverty alleviation scheme.

Insiders in her ministry intimated that they have written three letters to Ubos to clean up the data but in vain. Instead, Ubos maintains the data was collected hurriedly owing to budget constraints and in other instances, district officials manipulated the data through the enumerators they hired.

Track record

During the first phase of Parish Development Model (PDM), Shs17 million was provided to each parish during the last Financial Year 2021/2022 under the Parish Revolving Fund. Of the Shs17m, Shs11m was placed in the revolving fund and the balance channeled toward administrative costs, including each district hiring enumerators to assist the Ministry of ICT/ Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) team.

For this Financial Year 2022/2023, Shs1.059 trillion was allocated to the poverty antidote blueprint, with each of the 10,594 parishes expected to get Shs100m

The display of data at parishes is meant to help the Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) teams in the verification exercise as Resident District Commissioners (RDCs) and Gombolola International Security Officers (GISOs) keep a keen on eye on what could possibly go wrong.

The Ministry of Finance also says it cannot put brakes on release of the PDM funds as the Public Finance Management Act stipulates that finances budgeted ought to be disbursed within the first 10 days of the beginning of the new Financial Year.

The government first mooted the PDM in 2020. It was subsequently launched in late February in Kibuku District. It is acclaimed as a multi-sectoral strategy for socio-economic transformation by moving 39 percent of households from subsistence economy to the money economy.

According to several policy documents, the PDM is a strategy for organising and delivering public and private sector interventions for wealth creation and employment generation at the lowest economic planning unit.

Questions, however, linger as to whether where the scheme was piloted, lessons, if any, were learnt from the nearly a dozen previous poverty alleviation schemes.