RUKUNGIRI-Parish chiefs and SACCO leaders in particular have been told to quit abusing the Parish Development Model (PDM) program or else risk arrest, according to the Rukungiri district chairperson LC5 Mr. Geofrey Kyomukama.
The district governor revealed this last week at the Hotel Loryconn in western Division Rukungiri municipality while discussing the progress of the new government’s Parish Development Model program with our correspondent.
According to Kyomukama, misusing the funds is likely to have an impact on the program’s ability to lift households out of poverty.
He called on the Parish Chiefs and SACCO leaders to halt the act or face arrest, citing them as the individuals who have always been connected to problems with the government’s failed PDM program.
He asked them to promote community development because PDM was introduced to help alleviate poverty.
According to the LC5 chairman, resentful people who want to gain from the PDM are complaining about Parish heads that covertly create the PDM leadership in order to bilk intended recipients in addition to raising money from the public illegally.
The Nyabitete Parish Chief, Mrs. Ayebare Brender, and the Nyabitete PDM SACCO secretary, Kobusingye Penelope, were detained at the beginning of this month by Rukungiri Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Nsubuga Bewayo Stephen on suspicion of extortion against Buyanja Sub County members of the Nyabitete Parish Development Model-PDM SACCO.
The suspects were accused of promising to let victims obtain PDM funds without having to go through the rigorous screening processes set in place by the district officials in exchange for payments ranging from Ugx. 30,000 to 50,000.
They were arrested as a result of several complaints made by their victims to Mr. Nsubuga Bewayo Stephen, the resident district commissioner for Rukungiri.
PDM, on the other hand, is a government strategy for planning and distributing interventions for wealth development and employment generation to Ugandans at the parish level, the lowest economic planning unit, in order to improve household food security and earnings.
Agriculture (production, storage, processing, and selling); infrastructure and economic services; financial inclusion; social services; mindset change; and community mobilization are among the seven pillars that support the strategy.
