HOIMA, UGANDA: Michael Kyakashari the Hoima Deputy Resident District Commissioner (DRDC) has ordered all Parish Development (PDM) Officials to re-register all project beneficiaries in the district amid implementation loopholes.
According to Mr Kyakashari, ineligible people have been found to have benefitted from the PDM funds in the district hence the need for fresh screening.
The DRDC says although the government set standards for the beneficiaries of the funds, it was a different matter in Kiganja and Kigorobya sub-counties, Hoima district.
According to the benchmark, 39 per cent of the poor people are to benefit from the funds that the government believes will relatively heave them from poverty.
But in Kiganja and Kigorobya, most of the beneficiaries do not belong to the category as they have been found to be financially better off; creating suspicion that there could have been probable manipulation in the registration exercise of the beneficiaries, as per Mr Kyakashari.
As such, the RDC has ordered the cancellation of the names of all ineligible beneficiaries saying the incident is diluting the intended goal of the programme.
He says this will be done collectively with the Gombolola Internal Security Officers (Gisos) of the two sub-counties after attaining data collected by officials from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS).
Mr Kyakashari reveals that in the next move, parish chiefs will redo the exercise by getting to the community, evaluating the exercise and get proper information about the right category of persons to benefit from the programme.
Meanwhile, the Hoima district woman Member of Parliament, Ms Harriet Busiinge, says many people are not well abreast of most government financial development project operations aimed to thrust them out of poverty, thus, leading them to be left out of the system.
She notes that to her astonishment, PDM is suffocating in its early stage due to a vacuum in mass mobilisation leaving many people without benefitting from the projects.
This was during Ms Busiinge’s drive mobilising and sensitising women saving groups in Hoima district about avenues of improving their lobbying capacity and how they can benefit from various government projects like PDM and Emyooga.
At the same function held at Hoima Skilling Centre in Kigorobya town council, Ms Peninah Baseka, the councillor for the elderly for Kigorobya town council, said many women savings groups in her area of jurisdiction have been failing to take off due to the members’ ignorance of proper ways of saving.
She also cited distrust among some group members entrusted with keeping group money that discouraged women from joining other groups.
“Very many groups at village level have been failing because very many women are ignorant about how savings groups operate and even some women group members have been embezzling group funds resulting in women losing trust in such groups.”
However, she was optimistic that with the ongoing sensitisation organised by the woman Member of Parliament, there will be a change in those women’s mindset of perception.
Ms Rose Nyamunugwa, a resident of Kiganja sub-county, faulted concerned leaders in the area for allegedly being adamant to mobilise and sensitise the populace at village level about developing a saving culture and the good multiplier effect that is reaped therefrom.
“The group saving and borrowing drive conducted by the district woman Member of Parliament has tackled what has been a challenge to most women because they were not fully sensitised like they have been now equipped with and acquired broader knowledge about government financial projects like PDM and Emyooga,” she said.
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