Pallisa, Uganda – The office of the Resident District Commissioner (RDC) of Pallisa has intensified the monitoring of the Parish Development Model (PDM) program in the district.
Magid Dhikusooka, the Pallisa RDC, said he has opened a complaint desk at his office for people to report any dissatisfaction during the selection process or any form of corruption.
Dhikusooka stated that some individuals are asking for money under the guise of purchasing data to upload beneficiaries’ details into the system.
“I need my job, and whoever is playing with theirs will get fired. I cannot believe that uploading one’s information costs 100,000 or even 200,000. This is open corruption that is intolerable,” Dhikusooka said.
He further explained that there is money allocated for the Parish Chiefs and Community Development Officers (CDOs) to use, and if they feel it is insufficient, they should register their complaints, but not disrupt a program in which the government has invested trillions of shillings to lift people out of poverty.
“For the case of Emyooga, I don’t want to hear about executive members using the name of the District Commercial Officer, claiming there is a processing fee. Most groups have already received the second round of funding, except for a few with leadership challenges that delayed the processing. If any officer asks for a bribe before clearing the group, report to me, and I will deal with them, but I need concrete evidence,” he said.
Sam Okia of Kasodo Sub County said that some technical officers are colluding with SACCO leadership to extort money from the would-be beneficiaries.
Okia said that if a thorough investigation is conducted, it will be revealed that some SACCO leaders have more than one beneficiary, which is unfair.
Yoweri Tukei from Akisim Sub County in Agule County mentioned that anyone who complains is often told that the system has rejected them.
“The Minister of ICT, Chris Baryomunsi, while speaking on a talk show at Etop Radio Soroti, promised to come to Pallisa to follow up on the situation,” he said.
