Two top Rwampara district officials have returned part of the money they were accused of misappropriating from the Parish Development Model-PDM program. They are the Chief Administrative Officer, Steven Rubeihayo, and Senior Production Officer, Athanathias Gumisiriza.
The duo was arrested last week for the alleged misappropriation of 38 million Shillings meant to facilitate PDM activities and soliciting 34,000 Shillings from each beneficiary group contrary to the PDM guidelines. They were released on police bond after promising to refund the money and correcting any error in the program.
Jane Asiimwe Muhindo, the Rwampara Resident District Commissioner, says that the officials have returned the 7.5million Shillings they had solicited from 64 PDM groups, which they returned to the beneficiaries on Wednesday.
Muhindo says that they also followed up and recovered the Shillings 7.8 million that the Chief Administrative Officer erroneously sent to Kinoni sub-county in Kiruhura district.
Muhindo said that part of the money that was not accounted for was meant for the recruitment of parish chiefs in 11 parishes.
Trouble for the officials started when the PDM beneficiaries implicated them for soliciting money to facilitate their registration. Emmanuel Mugisha, the Chairperson of the Bugamba Tukore group, says the officials tasked him to pay 50,000 Shillings for the certificates, certifying photocopies of their documents, and stamp to have his group registered in Rweibogo Parish SACCO.
Douglas Tinka, the Rweibogo Town Council district councilor, says that he and other beneficiaries are being threatened by the parish chiefs who they accused of soliciting money from them.
PDM is a government program targeting to deliver citizens from poverty through value addition, wealth creation, and employment generation at the parish level as the lowest economic planning unit
Do you have a story in your community or an opinion to share with us: Email us at editorial@watchdoguganda.com
