PDM pillars confusing beneficiaries, says Museveni

Gulu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | President Yoweri Museveni has criticized the complexity of the terms used in the Parish Development Model (PDM) pillars saying they are confusing and hard to understand by both local leaders and beneficiaries.

Museveni noted that he had personally in a past cabinet meeting stressed his concerns that the locals may not be able to understand clearly the seven pillars of PDM. Speaking at a rally at Kaunda Paly Grounds in Gulu City Friday in a mix of both English and Acholi dialects, the President said the seven pillars of PDM haven’t been clearly understood by the leaders in the region.

The seven pillars of PDM are Agriculture (Production, Storage, Processing, and Marketing), Infrastructure and Economic Services, Financial Inclusion, Social Services, Mindset change, Parish Based Management Information System, and Governance and Administration.

Museveni noted that PDM should only stand on two grounds of wealth creation and making wealth in a calculated manner.

The president was Friday concluding his two days’ tour of the Acholi Sub-region on a mission to preach wealth creation and prosperity message to people in the region.

During the rally, several people raised complaints of the gaps in the implementation of the programme which has left locals unable to benefit. This was after an official at the PDM secretariat made submissions on the implementation of PDM.

Different speakers told the President that whereas the PDM idea is good, its implementation was being affected by corrupt civil servants at the district, city and sub-county levels.

Alex Okoya, the Local Council 2 Chairperson of Labour Line Ward in Gulu City, alleged that the selection of Parish Development committees which should have happened at the parish levels was recently hijacked by a group of corrupt individuals and instead done at the city council. Okoya notes that the beneficiaries who should have been made aware of the process in time were only informed some hours before the exercise.

Doreen Adkorach, a resident of Unyama says the majority of the groups in Unyama and Awach Sub-counties, where she is one of the monitoring group members for the Inspectorate of Government, were made to pay money before joining a Sacco group.

She asked the president to reign in on the issues surrounding the disappearance of money meant for group members in the area.

In his response to the complaints of the locals, President Museveni revealed he will be returning in April to visit one of the Parishes in the region randomly to get first-hand information from the benefiting group members.

He promised to take action once he finds out that the problems of PDM are being created either by the Sub-county officials or banks.

Museveni says despite his visit to the region, he never got the chance to visit groups or farmers who are directly benefiting from PDM and promised to visit and reprimand those who will be found messing with the programme.

PDM is one of the latest strategies by the Government to deliver services to the people for improved livelihood.

In December last year, the government released over two Billion Shillings in parish revolving fund for beneficiaries in Acholi Sub-region in both Centenary and DFCU banks.

Through the programme, the government targets a total of 16.1 million Ugandans, or 3.5 million households, living under a subsistence economy to benefit from PDM.

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