SACCO leaders in Serere ordered to refund PDM cash

Soroti, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Minister of State for Fisheries, Hellen Adoa Abeku has ordered the Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization (SACCO) leaders in Serere to refund money allegedly extorted from residents seeking to benefit from the Parish Development Model (PDM) program.

The orders were made during a Barraza at Olobai- Kasilo Primary School in Bugondo Sub County on Thursday. During the Barraza, the Minister learned that the community members had been told to pay money by the SACCO leaders, the Parish Development Committees, and some LCI Chairpersons to enable them to access PDM funds.

For example, in Agulei Parish, the SACCO Chairperson, Joseph Felix Emasu allegedly extorted more than 1.2 million Shillings from his members when he asked them to pay 12,000 Shillings each for files and photocopying documents while applying for PDM funds.

It was reported that although the files and photocopying of documents cost only 4,100 Shillings, Emasu charged 12,999 Shillings to all the 104 members who applied for PDM cash in the parish.

When tasked to explain how he arrived at the decision to charge 12,000 Shillings, Emasu said that the decision was a consensus within his SACCO committee.

The Minister gave Emasu one week to refund the excess money he collected from the members of his parish.

In Otimong Village, the LCI Chairman, Joshua Okwi was also put on the spot for allegedly extorting 10,000 Shillings from every member of his village in order to access the PDM funds. Although Okwi failed to appear at the Barraza, the Minister directed the Police in Serere district to follow up with all the persons alleged to have extorted money.

Last month, Adoa ordered the arrest of some Parish Chiefs and the Parish Development Committees over similar allegations in addition to flouting the PDM guidelines. The accused persons allegedly paid ghost beneficiaries in Osokotoit and Aisin A villages and also sidelined two villages of Okulukulun and Atapar while selecting beneficiaries for funding.

Saulo Musasizi, the Serere District Police Commander (DPC) told the Minister that after the arrests, they recorded statements where the suspects reportedly agreed to refund the PDM money.

Musasizi also told the Minister that they are probing different sub-counties in the district after opening a General Inquiry File on the PDM management.

Since July this year, Adoa has been engaging the communities in different sub-counties in Serere over the PDM management in the parishes. The Barraza engagements started in Kidetok Town Council before Kateta and Bugondo in August and September respectively.

Serere district has received more than seven billion Shillings of PDM from the Ministry of Finance but has only been able to disburse UGX. 342 Million in the first batch of payment.

The district approved 1,139 vouchers for payment out of 7,096 people beneficiaries captured in the system by August 2023.

The Parish Development Model is a Government strategy or approach for organizing and delivering public and private sector interventions for wealth creation and employment generation at the parish level as the lowest economic planning unit. It has seven pillars ranging from production, storage, processing, and marketing; infrastructure and economic services; financial inclusion; social services; mindset change; parish-based management information system to governance and administration.

However, PDM implementation has been met by several concerns including alleged extortion, system breakdown causing delays, and lack of the required tools and equipment like computers in parishes and sub-counties to ease the registration processes.

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