Public Fund Squanderers to go Behind Bars; President Museveni Appoints Namayanja to Monitor PDM Funds.
By The Public Lens
In an effort to closely monitor the process of Parish Development Model (PDM) and eliminate irregularities, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has appointed Mariam Namayanja Kiwanuka as a Special Presidential Assistant to monitor PDM funds.
The revelation was made on Monday made by the Senior Presidential Advisor on Political Mobilisation, Moses Byaruhanga while launching the monitoring process at Bunnya Foundation Primary School, P.W.D village, Luwero Town Council in Luwero District.
During the occasion Namayanja introduced herself to the congregation and briefly outlined her role as being the registration of names of all PDM beneficiaries, the amount of money each has received, how the money is going to be used and then monitor the progress and identify the challenges.
“After I have done my role I report to the President will intervene where there is need. The monitoring process has begun from Luwero district and will be extended to the other parts of the country,” she said.
However as for Byaruhanga, while addressing the congregation explained in detail the effort that has been undertaken by the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government to fight poverty by initiating several programs.
“Some of these programs faced certain hindrances which government has managed to solve although still looking for lasting solutions to some of them,” he said.
He reminded the gathering that in January, 1997, the Universal Primary Education (UPE) was initiated and in February 2007 the Universal Secondary Education (USE) was introduced but some corrupt head teachers still went ahead asking parents to pay fees although they were well aware that the children were supposed to get free education.
“When we interrogated the school heads, they replied that they did not have enough teachers, so they outsourced some teachers who are paid using the money which is received from parents. However, the government is still investigating the matter,” the Senior Presidential Advisor stressed.
Talking about the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) Byaruhanga said this was created in 2001 to address constraints of lack of access to agricultural information, knowledge and improved technology among the rural poor farmers in the country but the program reached a few people and on the 26th February, 2022, PDM was initiated by the President as a strategy to improve service delivery and alleviate poverty at the grassroots.
“PDM is also facing some challenges which need to be ironed out immediately,” said Byaruhanga.
Clarifying on the maximum amount of PDM money to a beneficiary, Byaruhanga said it should be one million payable within two years and added that the money does not go back to the government; it remains in the Parish SACCO.
Reacting to a concern by the Luwero Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Richard Bwabye on people who squander government resources, the Senior Presidential Advisor on Political Mobilisation, assured him that the culprits will be arrested and dealt with according to the laws that govern the country.
RDC Bwabye reported the misconduct of some government officials involved in soliciting PDM money from beneficiaries and revealed that he had recovered a total of Shs61 million as he continues to hunt more culprits.
Talking about the issue of money lenders who collect National Identity Cards from borrowers as collateral, Byaruhanga gave an instruction to the RDC to ensure that the money lenders return the IDs to the owners because those documents are a government property.
“President instructed the Attorney General, Kiryowa Kiwanuka to institute a law deterring money lenders from using National IDs as a collateral security,” he added.
During the event, Walulya Josephus Mukasa, the PDM coordinator of Luwero sub county revealed that they had a total of 1,156 PDM beneficiaries; of whom 551 are males and 605 females.
“The beneficiaries have prioritized the agricultural sector which rotates around the growing maize, beans, vegetables, coffee, Matooke and rearing cattle, chicken, pigs, and goats,” he said.
Walubya also noted that about 70% of PDM money has been well utilized for its intended goal in the sub county whereas the remaining 30% of the money has issues where the beneficiaries misdirected it to other things like paying school fees for their children.
