Senior Reporter
Rubanda Deputy Resident Commissioner, Eric Ssewandigi, has taken action by ordering the arrest of Hamuhambo Town Council Town Clerk, Ali Kirarira, Community Development Officer Bridget Musiimenta, and town agent Bright Asiimwe.
This move follows allegations of corruption and violation of the Parish Development Model (PDM) guidelines.
The suspects are accused of removing the names of legitimate beneficiaries from the list and adding 11 ghost names during the first phase.
These individuals were neither known to the Sacco members nor belonged to the parish. The manipulation was discovered when the Kibuzigye – Hamuhambo PDM Sacco Limited raised concerns, 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 fraudulently received funds. Not only were ghost members included, but the disbursed amount was also incorrect, with most beneficiaries receiving Ugx 500,000 instead of the applied one million.
Ssewandigi stated that investigations confirmed the presence of ghost beneficiaries who had no affiliation with the SACCO or the parish.
The arrests were made based on evidence of these officials confessing to adding ghost names to the list. He warned residents involved in misappropriating the government’s Parish Development Model funds in the district to rectify their actions or face legal consequences.
This arrest is part of the government’s initiative 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.
