Ministers clash over Covid cash release

Ministers yesterday offered different accounts of government plans to give Shs100,000 to vulnerable Ugandans. 

The first batch of the targeted 501,107 beneficiaries were today slated to receive the Shs100,000 allocation each on their mobile phones.
The State minister for Gender, Labour and Social Development, Mr Charles Engola, yesterday said they were yet to complete the verification of the beneficiaries.

Appearing before Parliament’s Covid-19 taskforce, Mr Engola said they need a week to verify the lists of vulnerable persons to receive the relief cash.

“With transparency in what we are doing, is after collecting all this data, which we think by, given one week down, we shall have worked all the data. We shall display this data within one week,” he said.

However, later in the evening, Gender, Labour and Social Development minister  Betty Amongi said the disbursement would go on today.

“The Hon Minister’s statement was in the context that any data that is  not displayed shall not be paid and that the exercise is going to delay even more than we thought because very many Municipalities and cities have not uploaded substantial data,” Ms Amongi said.

He added: “As I talk right now, we have about 100,000 data that has been uploaded. We have enough data to allow us kickstart payment tomorrow (today) which is about 50,000.”

According to Mr Engola, the team on ground that is collecting data is thin and verification of data needs time.
He said by next week, the process will be complete and the beneficiaries will start receiving the money.

However, this angered MPs, who said the delay by government leaves many vulnerable people on the brink of starvation.
The chairperson of Parliament’s Covid-19 taskforce, Mr Abdu Katuntu, criticised the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) for not being able to avail the figures of the vulnerable people in the country.

He tasked Mr Engola to commit to have the list as soon as possible. 
“Can you have that commitment letter, addressed to the clerk to Parliament, that the list will be printed and displayed by end of tomorrow?” he said. 

Premier to decide 
The Permanent Secretary in the ministry of Gender, Mr Aggrey Kibenge, yesterday told Daily Monitor that the Prime Minister will today decide whether to kickstart payments of beneficiaries whose details have been cleared by the ministry.

Mr Kibenge said by yesterday,  53,053 beneficaries had been cleared for final approval by his office and these would be able to receive the money.

“The perspective the minister told legislators was that we need one week to be able to have all cases entered in the system. But our consensus is that we cannot wait for all the beneficiaries to be uploaded on the system to start payment,” Mr Kibenge said.

“We are saying, ‘let’s start the payment of beneficiaries whose details comes instead of waiting for others.’ This will be decided by the Prime Minister. If she clears us to start payment, we shall go ahead and initiate it because the money is ready in Post Bank,” he added.

Gender minister Betty Amongi on Tuesday said the first batch of the vulnerable people would receive their money today.
Kampala Resident City Commissioner Hudu Hussein yesterday told Daily Monitor that his team in all the five divisions (Nakawa, Kawempe, Kampala, Central, Lubaga and Makindye) were at the last stage of data collection.

Ms Hudu said all the data will be uploaded by the end of today, the deadline that was set by the Covid-19 taskforce.
“So far, we are more or less done with all the five divisions of Kampala. The teams are at the final stage of data processing and verification. By close of business tomorrow (today), it will be done,” Mr Hudu said.

He, however, said they had not received information from the government that the money will be sent next week. “We have not yet received that information. Me, I am working on a deadline of Thursday with my team. If that communication has been made, it will reach us,” Mr Hudu said.

Background  

When the President imposed a second lockdown on June 18, the Prime Minister, Ms Robinah Nabbanja, said the government would spend Shs54b on vulnerable people among which include taxi and bodaboda operators, bar attendants, gym instructors and single mothers. Each vulnerable person is expected to get Shs100, 000 by mobile money.