By Gilbert Akampa Kakurugu,
Mbarara
Ankolesub region district leaders today 13th June, 2023 met at Dream wood hotel in Mbarara city for the Parish Development Model stakeholders workshop that is aimed at sharing the progress and challenges in the implementation of the PDM program.
During the opening of a 2 day workshop, Hon. Jovrine Kyomukama Kallisa the National deputy coordinator PDM secretariat, ministry of local government appreciated the good work the district leaders are doing to ensure success in the government program.
Kallisa urged all stake holders to know their roles and boundaries in the implementation of the program. She noted that the role of the Resident district commissioner is to supervise the program not to set their own guidelines to follow, noting that this has created a lot of confusion in most of the districts.
Kallisa called upon all the districts that are lagging behind to immediately start disbarment of money to the beneficiaries noting that Kazo and Kiruhura districts have not yet done anything. She urged leaders to try and bridge the gap between government and citizens but not using their offices to scare away the citizens. Kallisa told the leaders that the right procedure is, households combine to form an enterprise group which then selects a member with a good business plan and it’s the business plan that qualifies a member or applicant but not the appraising committee. She said the appraising committees have given themselves a lot of powers and this sabotages the president’s directive.
During this workshop, the chairperson Sheema district Jemimah Buhanda Tumwijukye thanked government and president Museveni for thinking about the people at a lower level and always bringing such programs aimed at improving their livelihood. She acknowledged that there are challenges they meet as implementers one of them being poor facilitation to the parish chiefs. Buhanda said that parish chiefs should be provided with money for transport and data while they traverse their villages to gather information about the applicants.
Speaking at the same function Jafari Basajabalaba, district chairman Bushenyi said they are facing a lot of setbacks because most of the stakeholders lack enough information about PDM program and this has caused errors in its implantation. He also showed his dissatisfaction with government delays to fulfill their pledges to districts. Basajabala said government promised to give them 100 million for the financial year 2022-2023 but to his surprise they only received 50 million and their citizens think that the money was swindled.
