Masaka, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The lack of required logistics has been highlighted as the major bottleneck to the effective implementation of the Parish Development Model-PDM in Masaka district.
Reports indicate that the district is facing challenges in serving its targeted beneficiaries seeking funds through their respective parish Savings and Credit Cooperatives-SACCOs, due to the lack of equipment and internet bundles for data entry and its onward transmission.
Since the last financial year, the district has received over 600 million shillings, of which shillings 543 million are still stuck on SACCO accounts.
Barbara Nalunkenge, the Masaka District Commercial Officer in a program status report to the district council revealed that several Parish Chiefs and Parish Development Committee are failing to execute their duties in time due lack of computers and internet bundles to keep them running.
According to Nalunkenge, many of the Parish Chiefs who are the first-line overseers of the program have not yet entered their registered beneficiaries in the digitalized PDM Management Information system, and as a result, the money has not been paid out to the applicants.
Out of 18 parishes, there are only seven computers that are supposed to be used across the district, which according to Nalunkenge slows down the pace at which the program is being implemented.
She explains that in some parishes the details of the targeted beneficiaries are still on hard papers, yet the money can strictly be accessed through a digitalized system.
On the other hand, Nalunkenge indicates that they were also frustrated by the lack of teamwork among the district leadership, something that also slowed down the process of mobilizing and training the targeted beneficiaries.
She indicates that while they are stage of cleaning beneficiaries’ data, which was collected back in March, there are still more people who are showing up for registration.
Peter Ssenkungu, the Masaka District Works Representative indicates that it is unfortunate that the district has failed to disburse the money in time.
He says that delays in the release of the PDM funds is a serious frustration against the beneficiaries majority of whom are farmers whose plans are largely bent on the agriculture season.
Ssenkungu has challenged David Kawooya, the Masaka District Chief Administrative Officer to do everything possible and improvise means of fast-tracking the process of entering beneficiaries’ data into the system, such that the money is paid out to the targeted people.
David Kawooya, the Masaka District Chief Administrative Officer indicates that they have notified the PDM Secretariat about the underlying challenges and they soon expect to be supported to overcome the hurdles.
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