The next day, Steven Rubeihayo, the Chief Administrative Officer of Rwampara, and Athanasius Gumisiriza, his Production Officer, spent the night at the Nyeihanga Central Police Station. They are accused of stealing money from the Parish Development Model (PDM).
The two people were arrested on Monday at a meeting called by Resident District Commissioner Jane Asiimwe Muhindo and attended by Parish Chiefs, Chairperson LC IIs, District Councilors, and some PDM beneficiaries.
Muhindo says that she started looking into how the PDM funds were managed after hearing from the people who got the money that Gumisiriza and some government workers had asked them for bribes when they registered.
“Some groups claim that some civil servants that I don’t want to mention because investigations are still ongoing, would ask for 34,000 shillings from each group for registration, yet the CAO knew about it and never did anything,” she said.
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Muhindo explains that the dou was arrested after failing to account for 35 million schillings meant for mobilisation and sensitization of the would-be beneficiaries since no training was held.
Muhindo says that the CAO did not hire staff parish chiefs as required by the PDM guidelines, even though the money was given for that purpose.
She says that she has already written to the state house Anti-Corruption Unit and the Inspectorate of Government to carry out a forensic audit of the funds received by the district since the programme was initiated.
Richard Owomugasho Baine, the Rwampara LC V Chairperson, says that another 7.8 million schillings that were meant for Kinoni Town Council were diverted to the account of Kinoni Sub County in Kiruhura District.
The Rwampara Chief Administrative Officer denied any knowledge about the irregularities and missing funds, saying that it was only brought to his attention by the PDM focal person last week.
Musa Karindiro, who is the chairperson of the Mwizi Parish in the Mwizi Sub County, says that they have never been invited to the sensitization PDM meeting, and they were shocked when a list was made from his parish.
