Emyooga: RCC warns inactive groups
Uganda's legal tender. PHOTO/FILE/NMG
The Gulu Resident City Commissioner (RCC), Ms Jane Frances Okili, has threatened to withdraw Emyooga funds from inactive groups and give it to active ones that missed out on the money.
This publication has established that millions of shillings is currently lying idle on bank accounts of many groups whose members are undecided on how to utilise it.
In an interview at the weekend, Ms Okili said the city authorities will soon sit to make a decision on the next step for such groups.
“I have been quarrelling with journalists who received Shs30 million on their bank account under Emyooga programme but up to now, the funds have not been touched. We are going to (withdraw the money), give it to people who are willing to use it,” she said.
“For the idle funds, we called these groups and we had a meeting on [last] Monday. Some complained of not trusting the leadership and there were also wrangles among themselves before they even got the money,” she added.
Ms Okili said other groups who received the money and put it to use are now performing very well.
“While interfacing with the groups, we discovered that they just fear to use it, some say they fear being arrested for “picking this government money” but they don’t want to listen and understand; even when we call them for sensitisation, they don’t come,” she said.
This publication has discovered that the rules surrounding the release of funds and registration has affected the utilisation of the funds.
Under the rules, a group has to mobilise its members, elect leaders, mobilise money for registration, open a bank account and make the mandatory deposit (one-third of the funds they are supposed to receive into their account), among others.
Gulu City Council recently recommended that the requirement to deposit one-third of the funds be reduced to 10 percent, arguing that many potential beneficiaries cannot afford to raise it. Groups in Gulu City started receiving the funds channelled through the majority of bank accounts opened at PostBank.
