President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni recently directed the State House Anti-Corruption Unit and the Internal Security Organisation to ensure that no fund meant for poverty eradication programmes is stolen or mismanaged by the officials.
The president’s directive stemmed from various complaints from locals that exposed glaring cases of mismanagement of the Parish Development Model, UWEC, and Emyooga programmes.
Anita, Recently, the Speaker, Anita Among, sent members of Parliament on recess to monitor government programmes between the 8th of September and the 28th of September 2023.
On September 8, 2023, the MP for Kole North, Dr. Samuel Opio Acuti, commenced his oversight visit with a meeting attended by leaders and members of the Ogwangacuma Parish PDM Sacco.
A detailed oversight report filed by Kole North County MP Dr. Samuel Opio Acuti has highlighted various irregularities, including double payments, extortion, missing funds, and framed arrests, in the PDM programme in Ogwangacuma SACCO.
“This is not my first time to uncover such rot in the government programmes. In 2021, during the Emyooga oversight programme, Ugx 131 million were stolen from the SACCO accounts in all 15 out of the 16 constituency SACCs that received the money. This was under the watch of the then RDC, who was the Chairperson of the Emyooga task force,” says the Kole North MP.
According to the report, for example, Kole North Boda Boda Sacco received the sum of Ugx 24.953 million, yet Ugx 38 million was withdrawn from the account. It was discovered that the sum of Ugx 14 million was missing and unaccounted for, and in Kole North Performing Artists Sacco, some Ugx 17 million was unaccounted for.
“The beneficiaries received a total of Ugx 13 million; however, the officials had withdrawn the sum of Ugx 30 million from the bank,” reads the report. This trend occurred in all the Saccos, indicating it was systematic and coordinated.
The then-RDC immediately fled the district and asked for a transfer. He has never returned to make police statements to date, according to the report that confirmed that the same vice is being repeated in the implementation of PDM activities.
The report established that many beneficiaries had their loans reduced from Ugx1 million to Ugx800,000; another had their loans reduced to 600,000/=, while others had their loans reduced to 500,000 and even 300,000/= under the directives of one Achiro Lucy, the Community Development Officer (CDO) of Aboke Town Council, who asked them to pluck off pages in their loan forms that had 1 million Ugx and replace them with figures that she assigned to them.
The SACCO chairman, Okii Edward, and several group leaders reported that their earlier arrests had been framed by the CDO, Achiro, after they refused to collect 30,000 Ugx per member in order to receive their PDM money, a claim that she recently denied.
“The persons who accused them in a meeting chaired by the RDC who later directed their arrest under instructions from the LCV Chairperson, Awany Andrew claimed we stole their money .However, the same person Adero Vicky has never received any PDM money and the bank statement doesn’t show anywhere that the SACCO chairman stole 8m Ugx, as alleged by the secretary of the SACCO Awany Paul as he has never withdrawn any money from the bank accounts. Secondly, the SACCO chairman and the other group leaders were not allowed to talk and defend themselves after being accused and were thereafter immediately arrested.They also stated that the CDO whom they had complained about,shockingly was the Master of Ceremony of the meeting and they weren’t allowed to raise any complaint about her!” reads part of the report .
According to the same report, a deep scrutiny of the stamped bank statements of Ogwangacuma PDM Sacco reveals glaring anomalies and double payments.
Atim Hassan, one of the beneficiaries, is indicated to have received Ugx 800,000 on August 23, 2023, and another Ugx 800,000 on August 26, 2023, totaling 1.6 million Ugx. This is above the permissible Ugx1 million PDM loan amount. He is, however, reported to have only received 800,000 Ugx, leaving the other 800,000 Ugx unaccounted for.
Adong Doris, another beneficiary, is indicated to have received Ugx 800,000 on the 23rd of August and another Ugx 800,000 on the 26th of August, totaling Ugx1.6 million above the Ugx1 million PDM loan amount. She, however, reported to have only received Ugx 500,000, leaving Ugx1.1 million unaccounted for.
“There are also glaring anomalies in the bank statements. On October 10, 2022, the account had a balance of ugx5 million instead of Ugx31.8 million. Similarly, on April 24, 2023, only Ugx 5 was in the account instead of 57.8 million Ugx. Between May 11 and June 20, 2023, a period of more than one month, the account only had Ugx 5 instead of Ugx 57,198,618. Where was the rest of the money at this time since no withdrawals had started to be made? On August 24th and 25th, 2023, the account only had a balance of Ugx5 million instead of 54.5 million Ugx and 56.3 million Ugx, respectively,” said the report.
It further revealed that whereas the CAO and the SACCO executives, namely the chairperson, secretary, and treasurer, approved payment of 57.2 million Ugx, which began being effected on August 22, 2023, by the time of getting the statement on September 8, 2023, 54.8 million Ugx had been paid, with 2.4 million Ugx not yet paid out and no evidence of the amounts having bounced. Why didn’t the bank follow the instructions given?
“Another discrepancy was on Akello Betty, another beneficiary who received 2.3 million Ugx over three installments. She received 1.0 million Ugx on August 22, 2023; 500,000 Ugx on August 25, 2023; and another 800,000 Ugx on the same day, totaling 2.3 million Ugx. However, 2.8 million Ugx were again deducted from her on the same day. How is it possible to deduct more money than what one has in their account unless she had a loan with the bank?” The report questions
MP Dr. Samuel Opio Acuti has called for the statehouse anti-corruption unit to intervene and carry out full investigations on the PDM and UWEP programmes in Kole District.
“The group withdrew 8.5m Ugx on 25th January 2022 and on the same day lent the money under instructions of the CDO and District focal person for UWEP, Lucy Achiro. The group prepared minutes and Akona Denis signed for the money promising to pay within 10 months. It was surprising since UWEP is a women’s programme and having a man as a beneficiary was disturbing. I was informed that Akona Denis is related to the CDO and this needs to be investigated. The group therefore instead of receiving 10m Ugx only received Ugx 4 million,” reads the report.
P”Our people have suffered repetitively from extortion, theft of funds, and blackmail, among others, orchestrated by persons in higher authority in the district. This has resulted in government interventions having little impact on the beneficiaries. It is time to say enough is more than enough and have the culprits brought to book,” said MP Dr. Opio.
MP Dr. Opio’s report revealed that the CDO being complained about was also the focal person for the UWEP programme (Uganda Women Empowerment ogram), in which he had discovered a lot of irregularities earlier in February 2022 and officially reported them to the CAO to investigate.
It was noted in the report that in Note En Mar women’s group in Aboke Town Council, the beneficiaries were told to lend Ugx 4.5 million to a one Akona Denis by the officials.
“The group withdrew Ugx8.5 million on January 25, 2022, and on the same day lent the money under the instructions of the CDO and district focal person for UWEP, Lucy Achiro. The group prepared minutes, and Akona Denis signed for the money, promising to pay within 10 months. It was surprising since UWEP is a women’s programme, and having a man as a beneficiary was disturbing. I was informed that Akona Denis is related to the CDO, and this needs to be investigated. The group therefore, instead of receiving 10 million Ugx, only received Ugx 4.0 million,” reads the report.
“However, no report had been given almost one and a half years later, yet glaring irregularities were discovered in Note En Mar, Aboke, Awele, Barwot B, and Oryem Can B women’s groups under the UWEP programme in which the groups received less amounts than those disbursed by the Ministry. Note En Mar women’s group received Ugx 10M but were told to only withdraw Ugx 8.5M, and the Awele women’s group received Ugx10 million but were only told to withdraw Ugx 8M. Barwot B women’s group and Oryem Can B women’s group should have each received Ugx 9m but only received Ugx 6m, and Aboke women’s group was only allowed to withdraw Ugx 5m yet they had received Ugx 9m on the account,” the report revealed.
2,259 total views
Keep it up