11 parishes in Adjumani miss PDM money

At least 11 parishes in Adjumani District have missed out on the Parish Development Model (PDM) money that was dispersed in the last quarter due to late submission of the forms.

The Adjumani District PDM coordinator, Dr Godfrey Mamawi, who doubles as the district production officer, said each parish has received Shs25m on top of the first disbursement of the Shs14m that was remitted earlier.

“The district has already transferred Shs39m to the various accounts of the 45 parishes with the exception of the 11 parishes that submitted their forms late, which translates into about Shs2.1b,” Mr Mamawi told the Monitor on Monday.

Mr Mamawi further revealed that the 3rd and 4th quarter transfers will be Shs50m and Shs25m respectively, raising the overall figure for FY2022/2023 disbursement to Shs6.3b.

He said, the district has so far achieved 80 percent of the work in terms of creating awareness and training farmer group leaders on enterprise selection and management pending picking of their cash to start the activities.

The Adjumani District chairperson, Mr Ben Anyama said, the PMD money “comes with handcuffs” that will lead thieving officers to prison.

Poor households encouraged

The Adjumani Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Mr Peter Taban Data, said the PDM programme is a wake-up call for poor households to work hard and improve their income so as to reduce poverty levels in the community.

The RDC urged the parish chiefs and other technical officers to execute their duties with the utmost commitment, saying PDM is a community lifeline.

“I am going to do close monitoring of this project and ensure all the parishes have received this money and put it to right use,” Mr Data said.

Adjumani District has 56 parishes, nine sub-counties, and two town councils.

The enterprises selected by the different farmer groups include growing of soya beans, maize, aquaculture, and produce buying and selling.

President Museveni launched PDM in February last year.

The progamme is intended to lift at least 17 million Ugandans in approximately 3.5 million households out of poverty through the transformation of subsistence households into a money economy.

The revolving fund goes directly to the Sacco accounts in each parish, from which households can borrow and invest in income-generating activities.

Each head of a home registered in the local Sacco will receive Shs1m.

About 280 tractors will be available for some of the more capital-intensive parish projects such as mechanised agriculture.