President Yoweri Museveni has directed that all people who irregularly benefitted from the Parish Development Model (PDM) program, should pay back the funds immediately.
“During my tour, I have discovered that there are people who are not qualified for the PDM, “the bagagga” civil servants. Those ones got it, yet they are not supposed to get it. They should pay it back immediately. Those made a mistake of taking what is not theirs,” he ordered.
The President made the remarks Thursday while addressing a public rally at Maluku Sports Grounds, Mbale City.
The rally was part of the Presidential regional performance assessment tour on the Parish Development Model and wealth creation in Bugisu sub region.
President Museveni also revealed that he has already ordered banks to stop deducting charges from the Shs1 million being received by the PDM beneficiaries, saying it should be the government to pay all those charges.
“Now we have put PDM in every Parish. It’s Shs100 million per parish per annum. That means it should benefit 100 homes a year. The banks which have been knocking off money, I have stopped it, the government will pay the bank charges, they will not touch your Shs1 million,” he assured.
The President also said all the officials who have been stealing the PDM funds are going to refund the money and be arrested at the same time.
“Now there are those who knocked off some money and instead of giving the beneficiaries Sha980,000 after bank charges, they gave Sha200,000, Shs500, 000. There are two categories there, initially there are those who ordered themselves to give small money to various people without following what the government was saying. When we came to know we stopped it, we said it must be Shs1 million. If anybody knocked off money after that, you will pay back but also we are going to arrest him because that one is a thief,” he said.
President Museveni further assured Ugandans of PDM continuity, asking them to guard the project jealously because it’s meant to help them fight poverty and uplift their livelihoods.
“Let us move without stopping, each year we shall send Shs100 million. That means in 5 years, the Parish will get Shs500 million but also in the 3rd year, the one who got first will pay back and that money will come back to the fund of the Parish and by 5 years, the Parish bank would have got an extra Shs 300 million coming back from the initial borrowers.
It will no longer be Shs500 million but Shs 800 million. This money will not come back to the government, it will stay in your Parish bank. This is your money, make sure you guard it properly. You don’t have to borrow from the money lenders or even the commercial banks, this is your money, so please don’t miss this chance.”
