By Nantaba Lukia
The Hamuhambo Town Council Town Clerk Ali Kirarira, the Community Development Officer Bridget Musimenta and the Town Agent Asiimwe Bright have been arrested over corruption and misappropriation of the Government's Parish Development Model Fund.
This comes after whistle-blowers from the Kibuzigye - Hamuhambo PDM Sacco Limited raised a red flag over the deletion of their names from the PDM beneficiary list adding new ones which are not from their parish or their Sacco by the Top Authority.
The arrested are Town Clerk, CDO and Town Agent are believed to have deleted names of the rightful beneficiaries from the list of getting funds from the first phase adding 11 ghost names that are not known by the Sacco members or at the parish.
With this continuous decry over the misappropriation, bribery, and corruption with the disbursement of the PDM funds in Kibuzigye - Hamuhambo PDM Sacco Limited in Hamuhambo Town Council in Rubanda District, The District Deputy RDC Eric Ssewandigi held a crisis meeting to hear from the aggrieved Sacco Members at the Hamuhambo Town Council Headquarters in Kyarujjumba ward.
The concern that dominated the meeting was about the deletion of the beneficiaries' names replacing them with the ghost beneficiaries who are neither Sacco members. Agnes Tusingwire and Judith Kyarisima who are SACCO members and were deleted from the list of the priority beneficiaries of the first bunch say that their names were deleted from the list replacing them with ghost beneficiaries who are not even in their SACCO.
These further say that when they approached the office of the Community Development Officer to inquire why their names were deleted from the list of beneficiaries, they were told that the non-sacco members that got the money were to just use it for a month and return it back.
John Twesigomwe, the SACCO chairperson for Kibuzigye - Hamuhambo PDM Sacco Limited said they passed through all the procedures necessary up to the time of submitting the list to the bank for the disbursement of the funds to the members of their SACCO. Twesigomwe says that surprisingly when the time for disbursement came, non-sacco members got money that was meant for the registered SACCO members.
Twesigomwe further says that when this issue came to their attention, they recognized that on the list of beneficiaries, there were 11 non-SACCO members who have already received on their share. He further adds that the majority received Shs500000 instead of the Shs 1m they are entitled to.
Eric Ssewandigi the Deputy RDC for Rubanda District says that the investigations indicate that of 108 members of Kibuzigye - Hamuhambo PDM Sacco Limited, there is a quit number of ghost beneficiaries from the first phase of disbursement that are not attached to the SACCO neither to the parish. He says that the arrest was prompted by the admission of these officers adding ghost names to the list of beneficiaries.
Ssewandigi further cautions residents of Rubanda district that may be associated with misappropriating government Parish Development Model funds to better sort themselves before they are approached.
While launching the disbursement of the PDM funds in Rubanda district 4 months ago, the Minister of State for Finance in charge of General duties Henry Musasizi, noted that PDM is NRM Government this term strategy to integrate subsistence households into the money economy saying that they have so far sent Ugx 1.059.4 trillion to 10,594 PDM SACCOS this Financial year as revolving funds.