LUWERO: Parish Development Model funds were given to each district and are still sitting there months before the end of the fiscal year.
People in Uganda started using the Parish Development Model (PDM) in February this year. President Yoweri Museveni started using the PDM at Kibuku Primary School in Kibuku District, in the Bukedi Sub-region.
The Parish Development Model (PDM) aims to help people from the parish level increase their household incomes and join the money economy.
Before the launching of the PDM, the districts had received funds to start off the implementation of the programme, but they had yet to release them to parishes, raising fears that they may be returned to the consolidated fund at the end of the financial year.
In the Butebo district, the Parish Development Model Focal Person, Joseph Kalyebi, told URN that the district formed 61 groups, which were presented for launch by the President, but only six groups have received 17.3 million shillings each. He said that they are training other groups to prepare them to get the money that is available in the district accounts.
In the Hoima district, 840 million schillings were received to facilitate the operations of the parish development model, but Charles Kajura, the district focal person for the program, says they could not disburse it to the various parishes over a lack of implementation guidelines.
It’s still not done, he says, because they have to follow guidelines from the ministries of Gender, Finance, Local Government, and the Office of the President on how to set up PDM SACCOs at the parish level.
The situation is not different in Luwero, Kyotera, and Kitgum, among other districts.
Isaac Wampamba, the Luwero District Secretary for Finance, explained that the recruitment of parish chiefs was done and now they are mobilizing parishes to form committees to kickstart the programme. Wampamba, on the other hand, says that parishes can’t get the money until they get the rules.
Ambrose Musasizi, the Kyotera District Communication Officer, said that the Chief Administrative Officer is also still waiting for implementation guidelines.
Denis Ocira, the person in charge of the program, blamed the lack of use on not having the same rules. So far, the district in Kitgum has received 646.3 million for the program.
In Bukwo district, Resident District Commissioner Hashaka Mpimbaza says that the Chief Administrative Officer has failed to disclose how much funds were disbursed for the programme.
In the Amuru district, so far, 520.7 million shillings have been paid for the project.
Out of the release, 346.4 million shillings were meant for the revolving fund; 29 million shillings for administrative costs; 79.5 million shillings for staff costs; and 65.7 million shillings for gadgets and tools.
But the Chief Administrative Officer, Thomson Obong, says they are yet to come up with the groups that will benefit from the Parish Development Model (PDM) in all the 52 Parishes in the district.
Obong notes that the Finance Ministry also directed them not to spend funds meant for revolving funds and tools and equipment since there are no structures.
In Gulu District, a total of 140.6 million shillings has been received, of which 64 million shillings are meant for staff costs; 15.2 million shillings for administrative costs for the sub-county; 8.2 million shillings for district administrative costs; and 52.6 million shillings for tools and equipment.
The District Chairperson says that the government has promised to send funds for enterprises in the fourth quarter.
Recently, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Ramathan Ggoobi, halted the release of PDM funds for the third quarter and asked the Ministry of Local Government to fast track the release of implementation guidelines, the creation of enterprise groups and the recruitment of parish chiefs, among other issues.
It was Betty Among’s job to write operational manuals and train specialists to help spread the program. She said this week that her ministry had done both.
The government is supposed to send 17 million shillings per parish this financial year, and 100 million shillings are planned for the next financial year for the same parishes under the Parish Development Model.
