Prime
MPs query criteria used to give Covid cash to 150,000
Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja launches the first batch of Covid-19 cash relief at the Office of the Prime Minister on July 8. PHOTO/ ABUBAKER LUBOWA.
What you need to know:
- Legislators cited glitches in the ongoing registration and legitimacy of the beneficiaries.
Legislators yesterday questioned the criteria for registration and authenticity of more than 150,000 vulnerable people who have so far benefited from the Covid-19 government cash relief.
They accused the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), and that of Gender, Labour and Social Development of selective selection.
During the plenary session, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Ms Anita Amongi, ordered Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja to present the report to the House next Wednesday since her team had not yet shared its copies with the MPs.
MPs led by Mr Gilbert Olanya (Kilak South) cited glitches in the ongoing registration and legitimacy of the beneficiaries.
Claim
Mr Olanya claimed the first recipient, Mr Godfrey Oloya from Gulu District, didn’t go through the normal process.
“When we investigated, we realised that that person was not registered by the LCI or the normal process. He said he was taken and registered directly in the office of the RDC. There is a problem with this money because majority of [beneficiaries] are NRM cadres,” Mr Olanya said.
However, Ms Among denied the claim, warning Mr Olanya against insinuating that it was only NRM cadres benefiting.
Mr Medard Sseggona (Busiro East) questioned the criteria of selecting the beneficiaries.
“In the metropolitan area, many people were left out even when their means of livelihoods and survival were cut off. The classification of municipalities and town councils is an artificial one, which has no correlation with survival means and mechanisms,” Mr Sseggona said.
“I request the Prime Minister to review the mechanism and the amount commensurate with the cost of living. This should not only be limited to one place,” he added.
Mr Ronald Balimwezo Nsubuga (Nakawa East) accused the OPM of lying to Kampala residents that they have received the money.
“We have no evidence in Kampala indicating that anybody has received this money. The Prime Minister has continuously misled this country playing with the psychology of the people of Uganda, and Kampala in particular that she has been giving out money to these people,” Mr Balimwezo said.
“We are the representatives of these people and we have LCI chairpersons who can bear witness that no one in their villages has received this money,” he added.
The MPs also demanded access to the list of targeted 501,107 recipients and their details to verify if they got the money, saying it will allay any fears that the cash ended up with ‘ghost’ recipients.
Ms Cecilia Ogwal (Dokolo Woman) asked Ms Nabbanja to avail the list to the legislators before the end of this week so that they can verify and report back next Wednesday.
PM responds
Ms Nabbanja, however, told Parliament that they would be infringing on the privacy of the recipients, a submission MPs rejected.
“The information you are asking for contains people’s NINs, and other sensitive data and that will infringe on their privacy, so I need guidance on how to handle the issue of privacy of the recipients,” Ms Nabbanja said.
This newspaper has seen a copy that indicates that by July 13, a total of 154,702 beneficiaries had been paid Shs15.5 billion.
According to the OPM, 400,079 beneficiaries submitted data from the cities and municipalities.
Ms Nabbanja said out of the names submitted, a total of 150,915 have not been fully verified because of a number of anomalies, but promised that the names will be resubmitted.
She also said the exercise has been extended to tomorrow to accommodate those with data issues.
“We still have beneficiaries who submitted phone numbers which are to be registered with mobile money and we have to verify whether they can be paid by Post Bank,” Ms Nabbanja added.
