PDM beneficiaries spend nights on Mbale streets

A section of beneficiaries of Parish Development Model (PDM) cash in Bugisu Sub-region, who travelled to Mbale City to access the funds from various banks, are facing it rough. 

A Monitor investigation shows that most of the beneficiaries have been sleeping on the streets of the city and in Mbale Regional Referral Hospital for the past two months. 

Mr Milton Wakwale, the chairperson of a PDM Sacco in Bunamitya Parish, Namisidwa District, said they have endured coldness and hunger as they wait for the money. 

“We start lining up as early as 8am every day before banks open. We spend about six hours in the queue, only to be told that some requirements are missing,” he said on Saturday,.

Mr Wakwale and her group members have been sleeping outside the bank for the past three weeks because they don’t have enough money to cater for transport to and from rural areas every day.

“These PDM funds are becoming costly to get. Imagine we did all the paperwork, followed all steps required to get the funds and even signed the cheque, but it is now weeks and we are yet to get the money,” he said. 

Some of the beneficiaries also accused the community development officers (CDOs), parish chiefs, and town agents of extorting money from them.

“We got Shs32.7m and each person out of 35 members was supposed to get Shs1m, but that was not the case. The members got less because the officials demanded some money. I hear they helped with paperwork,” Mr Amos Mafabi, one of the beneficiaries, said. 

Four PDM officials in Namisindwa District, for example, have already spent a night in police custody on allegations of extorting money from beneficiaries.

The officials were arrested on Friday evening on the orders of the Resident District Commissioner of Namisindwa, Mr Imran Muluga. 

The Elgon regional police spokesperson, Mr Rogers Taitika, said the suspects were detained on charges of forgery and extortion.

“The officials were arrested following complaints raised by PDM beneficiaries that they extorted money from them as a pre-condition for accessing money from the bank,” he said. 

Mr Muluga added that the suspects will appear in court on Monday (today) to be charged with attempting to defraud PDM beneficiaries. 

Ms Joana Wekomba, a PDM beneficiary, said he has spent two weeks at dfcu Bank in Mbale City awaiting the money. 

“I sleep on the streets of Mbale Town without any money and food. The only money I had is finished. We are now stranded,” Ms Wekomba told Monitor at the weekend.

Ms Betty Kalenda, another beneficiary, said they are afraid to go back home without the PDM money because they borrowed money for transport to Mbale City.

“It is like those who know the officers in the bank are getting the money so fast, but the rest of us who know no one are left to suffer waiting for more months,” she said. 

Mr Adam Werishe, another beneficiary from Bulambuli District, who is supposed to get Shs1 million, said he is already in losses. 

“I have so far used more than Shs200,000 on transport and meals whenever I come to Mbale, but still, I have not got the money,” he said. 

The Mbale Resident City Commissioner, Mr John Rex Aachilla, blamed the delays on errors in some of the people’s documents. 

“Some people don’t have consistent information. Someone opened an account using the right National ID Number (NIN) and correct names, but instead used a phone number of a relative,” he said, adding that some parish officers did not do their work well. 

Mr Aachilla said some of the beneficiaries, who come from far places and borrowed money for transport, found that their accounts had not been opened.

“We have asked the beneficiaries who have not received the money to go back to their areas and wait for communication,” he said. 

He also faulted the banks for failing to help beneficiaries to open bank accounts from their villages.
“They [banks] lied to us when we went to the parishes to supervise their work. They pretended to be opening people’s accounts yet this wasn’t done. They were only correcting data,” he said. 

Information gap
Mr Steven Masiga, a researcher, said PDM cash will cause trouble because many recipients of the funds have not been well sensitised. 

“Many people who are receiving cash have vowed to vote President Museveni thinking this is some sort of presidential handshake and yet PDM cash according to guidelines is an interest-free loan, which should be paid back,” he said.

According to the PDM guidelines, each of Uganda’s 10,694 parishes is supposed to receive Shs100m. From this, each household is expected to get Shs1m to kick start the project chosen by the beneficiaries. 

Of the Shs100m, women and youth are each entitled to 30 percent at every parish level while men get 20 percent and the elderly and persons with disabilities get 10 percent apiece. 

What banks say
Some of the banks that were selected to provide PDM funds include DFCU, Post Bank, Centenary, and Housing Finance Bank. One of the bank officials interviewed by Monitor, who preferred anonymity, blamed the mess on parish chiefs whom he said were ignorant of the PDM guidelines.

“We are doing the work which the parish chiefs should have done,” the source said.