Lamwo leaders struggle to recover Shs422m youth fund
Farming. A beneficiary of the Youth Livelihood Programme cleans a sty recently. Government has suspended funding to YLP projects in Lamwo District because of poor recovery of money advanced to the youth . FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- Crisis. The government in financial years 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 advanced a total of Shs459 million to 65 youth groups but to date, only Shs37 million (8.76 per cent), have been recovered from 29 youth groups in Lamwo District.
LAMWO.
Lamwo District leaders are struggling to recover Shs422 million advanced to various youth groups in the district by government under the Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP).
The government in financial years 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 advanced a total of Shs459 million to 65 youth groups but to date, only Shs37 million (8.76 per cent) have been recovered from 29 youth groups in the district.
A senior YLP official in the district, Mr Robert Okumu, told Daily Monitor in a recent interview that efforts by the district leaders to recover the money has proved futile over the last two years.
Mr Okumu said since they failed to recover 50 per cent of the money advanced, the district missed out on Shs244 million that government had approved for 35 youth groups in the financial year 2016/2017.
He said about 21 youth groups disappeared with unspecified amount of money after failing to inject any cash in the projects they proposed.
“We got reports that some of the youth leaders upon receiving cash; they distributed it among themselves and disappeared. Others developed enmity, disagreement and misused the cash,” Mr Okumu said.
He also alleged that some politicians, while campaigning during 2016 general elections, deceived the youth that the money given to them by government was not to be paid back.
Mr Okumu noted that they have now embarked on a new approach by apprehending defaulters so that the money is recovered.
The Lamwo Resident District Commissioner, Mr Jonathan Rutabingwa, when contacted said they have launched an operation involving the police to track down the YLP fund defaulters to recover the money.
“We have brought the police on board to assist us in recovering the money from the youth. Over the years we advised and interacted with them but in vain,” Mr Rutabingwa said.
Lamwo District is among the 80 districts where government has suspended funding the YLP projects due to poor monitoring and supervision that led to poor recovery of money advanced to youth.
In 2014, the government financed 8,213 projects at a tune of 58.4 billion under YLP countrywide.
