Masaka, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Beneficiaries of the government’s special grant for Persons with Disability in Masaka district are demanding action against district officials accused of extortion.
In the 2019/20 financial year, the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development launched a special fund for Persons with Disabilities in groups, to support them with enterprise start-up and growth to eliminate poverty.
Under the program, local governments are required to organize persons with disability in enterprise groups of between 5 to 15 people, who are eventually supported with a non-refundable grant of 5 Million Shillings per group.
However, the beneficiaries in Masaka city claim that the program is abused by technical staff at the local government levels through extorting money from the applicants and the creation of non-existent groups that are receiving funding.
Vincent Ssentongo, the Masaka city councillor elect for Persons with Disabilities accuses the officials of extorting money from the beneficiaries at the stage of completing the application process for funding.
According to Ssentongo, they have also registered cases of group members who have been compromised by the technical officers at the local government, to withdraw the money before sharing it with them.
He argues that the program is not meeting the intended purposes of improving the livelihoods of the PWDs due to apparent irregularities committed by the officials.
Edward Muweesi also argues that it has become a habit for some staff at offices of the Community Development Officer to use bureaucratic tendencies in the processes of applying for the grant as means of extorting money from the beneficiaries.
Bruno Mugumya and Patrick Lukwago, some of the affected project beneficiaries argue that instead of 5 Million Shillings, it was reduced to 1.5 million shillings after the biggest percentage of the money was taken by staff in the office of the District Commercial Officer.
Mugumya says that although the mode of financing was changed, the technical teams at local governments are now creating hurdles at the points of withdrawing the money until they get shares of it.
Fred Bamwine, the Masaka City Resident Commissioner has instructed police to take interest in the reports and commence investigations into the allegations.
Bamwine promised to summon all the Community Development Officers at all levels, to present detailed reports about the implementation of the program in their areas.
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