How parish model cash will be shared

Minister Magyezi told journalists at a press conference in Kampala: “Thirty percent of the parish revolving fund will go to women, the other thirty percent will go to youths, ten percent will go to persons with disability and we have also agreed that 10 percent will go to the elderly.”

In a follow-up interview, he told this newspaper that the remaining 20 percent will go to groups belonging to men and others that don’t fall in the above special categories.

He said the prioritisation of women and youth is because they are marginalised, adding that the move is in line with the Constitution, although he did not specify the provision.

“The fact that they [women and youth] have been having programmes dedicated to them, they negotiated that they need affirmative action. We have integrated the programmes into the parish development model,” he said.  

The government has in the past years been giving money to youth and women through Youth Livelihood Programme and Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP), respectively.

But the implementation of the two programmes was reportedly marred by a lack of transparency and mismanagement of funds. Many groups which were given the revolving fund either misused or didn’t pay back the money as required, according to official audit reports.

The failures in the implementation of the women and youth fund programmes, in addition to other poverty alleviation programmes such as Entandikwa and Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP), prompted experts at a high-level policy dialogue last Thursday to ask the government to pilot the scheme regionally before disbursing billions of shilling to parishes with absorption capacity deficits.

It has emerged that the parishes will receive Shs17m until end of this financial year as approved by Parliament while in the next financial year, starting July 1, the annual disbursements will increase to Shs100m.

However, Ms Jessica Alupo, the Vice President, at yesterday’s press conference with Minister Magyezi and his ICT counterpart Chris Baryomunsi, said the government has a robust system to ensure that PDM is a success.

“The way government works is such that all ministries, departments and agencies are coordinated. Therefore, the monitoring mechanism [for PDM] are already in place,” she said.

She added: “We have a key monitoring secretariat at the Office of the Prime Minister and we also have the apex secretariat in the Office of the President. These two will work with the newly-established PDM to monitor the compliance in the implementation of the programme.”

Minister Baryomunsi on the other hand said they had developed a technology for real-time monitoring of the implementation.

“This is now different from how we have been doing other programmes. This is much more comprehensive … to lift communities out of poverty and also improve the quality of lives holistically,” he said.

According to Dr Baryomunsi, the government’s monitoring of the new programme will be stricter and more robust. “We are putting a very robust monitoring and evaluation framework,” he said, citing digital dashboards to be installed at OPM and Office of the President for real-time feedback on the progress of the poverty reduction initiative.

Through the automation, bureaucrats plan that either the Vice President or premier would be able to click on the dashboard in their offices to generate information about location and profile of each PDM project, its financial commitments and balances, and number of beneficiaries.

Minister Magyezi said the central government has, through districts, already sent Shs17m for each parish in the country, but the chief administrative officers --- who are the accounting officers --- have been ordered not to touch the money until the programme’s official launch this Saturday. 

He said 99 percent of parish chiefs have been recruited to superintend implementation of the programme.

Commenting on why the amount disbursed was Shs17m, and not the revised Shs100m, Mr Baryomunsi said: “We didn’t [deposit] Shs100 million now because we have to prepare the ground. Having money without a plan is the same as having plan without money.”

Since the cash transfers around last September, he said the government doubled down on sensitising beneficiaries for mindset change, and enterprises selection.

Local leaders react
Although Dr Baryomunsi said they have already prepared the communities for implementation of the PDM, some local leaders who talked to this newspaper said they lack knowledge about the programme.

Mr Joseph Byabagamba, the mayor of Kabujogera Town Council in Kitagwenda District, said that “this is a new development, and as such I don’t think ample sensitisation has been made to the grassroots”.

“Not even we leaders have been sensitised about this programme, save from reading in the literature and what people are sharing in [mainstream and social] media,” he said.

He said the government should be stricter on the PDM money for it to succeed.

“The other programmes like Emyooga short landed, and when the ministers moved down to investigate, they found that some of the money had been eaten. Even money for [Operation] Wealth Creation was misappropriated and this didn’t benefit many people as expected,” the mayor said.

According to Mr Aston Tumushabe, the mayor of Kisiita Town Council in Kakumiro District, “the district has not trained many people [to manage PDM programme]. But we are ready to receive it”.

Like Mr Tumushabe, Ms Rose Akello, the chairperson of Dokolo Town Council, said: “Those people in central government have not yet reached our sub-county about parish model. We are still waiting, but we are ready to mobilise our people...”

Minister Magyezi admitted that some districts have not been sensitised. He said the sensitisation will continue after the launch of the programme on Saturday.

Allocations: 

Shs200b Budgeted. Total budget allocated by government this financial year 

Shs180b Released. Money released last September for PDM revolving fund 

Shs20b Activities. Money used for sensitisation and preparations  

Shs17m For parishes. Money each parish will get this financial year  

Shs1 trillion Planned. Money planned for next financial year

Shs100m To receive. Money each parish is expected to get in July.