Five Kyegegwa District officials have been arrested for allegedly extorting money from beneficiaries of the Parish Development Model –PDM.
James Kamara the Principal Commercial Officer, Racheal Komuhendo the Town Clerk Mpara town council, and Monica Kabasinguzi, the Bugido Parish Chief were arrested on Thursday by the State House Anti-Corruption Unit.
The others are Fred Begumya the Bugido ward councilor and Evans Nimusingyiza the Chairperson Bugido PDM SACCO.
The officials were arrested on orders of Joveline Kaliisa the Deputy National Coordinator of PDM after receiving complaints from some SACCO members who were asked to pay 70,000- 150,000 Shillings for registration and membership into the SACCO.
According to Nimusingyiza, the commercial officer told him to open a physical office and start soliciting money from people who wanted to join the SACCO and benefit from PDM funds. He says he was charging 87,300 shillings from each member for registration.
However, Kaliisa says that according to the PDM guidelines, beneficiaries are not supposed to pay any money to district officials.
The suspects are in custody at Kyegegwa Police Station as investigations continue.
The Parish Development Model (PDM) which was launched by President Yoweri Museveni in February 2022, is a strategy for organizing and delivering public and private sector interventions for wealth creation and employment generation at the parish level as the lowest economic planning unit.
Under the program, each parish is expected to receive Shs100 million to benefit various categories of people to eradicate poverty.
