RUBANDA – The Rubanda Deputy Resident Commissioner, Eric Ssewandigi, has today ordered the arrest of Hamuhambo Town Council Town Clerk, Ali Kirarira, Community Development Officer Bridget Musiimenta, and town agent Bright Asiimwe over corruption scandal and violation of Parish Development Model (PDM) guidelines.
The allegations against the suspects involve the removal of legitimate beneficiaries’ names from the list of recipients in the first phase. Instead, they added 11 ghost names, individuals who were neither known to the Sacco members nor belonged to the parish. The Kibuzigye – Hamuhambo PDM Sacco Limited raised concerns about this manipulation, leading to the arrest of the accused officials.
During a meeting convened by Deputy RDC Ssewandigi at Hamuhambo Town Council Headquarters in Kyarujjumba ward, Rubanda District, SACCO chairperson John Twesigomwe revealed that 11 non-SACCO members had already received funds. Not only were ghost members included, but the applied amount of money was also disregarded, with most beneficiaries receiving Ugx 500,000 instead of the applied one million.
CUE IN TWESIGOMWE….ON GHOST MEMBERS…..RR//
Ssewandigi stated that investigations revealed a significant number of ghost beneficiaries who were not affiliated with the SACCO or the parish. The arrest was made based on evidence of these officials admitting to adding ghost names to the list of beneficiaries. He warned residents in the district involved in misappropriating government’s Parish Development Model funds to rectify their actions before facing legal consequences.
CUE IN DRDC SSEWANDIGI…..ON THE ARREST…..LUG/ENG//
The arrest comes in the context of the government’s efforts to integrate subsistence households into the economy through the Parish Development Model (PDM). Four months ago, Henry Musasizi, the Minister of State for Finance in charge of General duties, launched the disbursement of PDM funds in Rubanda district.
He emphasized that PDM is a key strategy of the NRM Government to uplift subsistence households, revealing that Ugx 1.059.4 trillion had been allocated to 10,594 PDM SACCOS as revolving funds in this financial year.
