President Yoweri Kaguta 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 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.”
On the issue of landslides in some parts of Bugisu sub region, President Museveni advised the locals to stop staying in steep areas, explaining that God did not plan for people to stay in those areas, rather He wanted it to be for other purposes such as water, forests and so on but not for human settlement.
“We told you long ago that this is very dangerous but some politicians were playing around with it. Now you have seen how many people we have lost. This mountain is a goldmine, it is catching water for us. It is God’s project but we who are near, we can use it in a clever way. From the lowlands where the people can live or the footsteps of the mountain not on the cliffs, we can have hotels for tourism where people come and stay in them and go up. And we can do projects like beekeeping in the forests but don’t stay there.”
He also assured the residents in disaster-prone areas that the government is ready to offer all the necessary support to resettle them in safer areas.
“I’m glad that after seeing what happened, people are now willing to move away and we are going to provide all the money to help you get away.”
Additionally, he informed them that he is going to involve the Ministry of Housing to see how they can help the people of Bugisu to start building standard houses, having discovered that some of them still use reeds and muds to set up houses.
“I’m going to involve the Ministry of Housing to see how to produce cement blocks for you nearby so that you start using cement blocks. These are easier to use.”
On the other hand, President Museveni castigated people who are working around the clock to fail the implementation of the Universal Primary Education (UPE), saying it’s a big mistake because such people are frustrating the government’s endeavour to educate Ugandan children for free.
“It is really a big mistake to fail to implement UPE. All those children you see there whom I’m picking up under skilling centres had dropped out of school because of fees. Now you see what they are doing, they are making shoes, chairs, metal works after a course of 6 months,” he said.
President Museveni explained that since inception, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) has been a mass line party which aims at “leaving no Ugandan behind”, thus coming up with several interventions like mass immunisation, security for all, prosperity for all and education for all.
“We also introduced bonna basoome- education for all. It was not well implemented, we have put money there but people still charge money from learners. And that is why many children are dropping out of school.”
President Museveni therefore asked Ugandans to support his line of education for all by stopping Head teachers and Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) from collecting school fees from learners.
“As you know I’m a resistance fighter, when you people, the parents Association and the headteachers refused to remove school charges, I continued educating children free in Kisozi in some schools which are directly under me,” he said.
“Recently I started skilling centres where children are studying for free. Those children are studying for free for those skills and yet what I’m doing there is more expensive than what you should be doing with UPE and USE. This is because the children are coming from far away, I need to accommodate them and feed them and so on.”
President Museveni also urged the people of Bugisu to listen to the NRM message of wealth creation if they want to become prosperous.
“Then we added bonna bagagawale- Prosperity for all. Some people didn’t understand this. We put it in the Manifesto of 1996 and we said you people who have got small land, engage in intensive agriculture where you use a small piece of land but get high returns. That means you select enterprises carefully. There are enterprises which make money if you do them on a big scale but there are those where you make money even if on a small scale,” he said.
“You have seen that those who listen move. I have very many cases of those who have listened and they are now doing well.”
He further revealed that the government was going to find a special solution for mountain marrum roads in the region.
President Museveni also pledged that the government was going to locate the remains of some of the bush war freedom fighters in Mbale who lost their lives during the struggle and give them a decent burial as well as support the families of the victims.
At the same function, President Museveni launched the Ghetto Structure SACCOs in Mbale and the NRM supporters under “Yellow Girls”, endorsed him as the party’s sole candidate for the 2026 Presidential elections.
The Vice President, H.E Jessica Alupo implored the people of Bugisu to continue supporting the NRM and President Museveni for national development.
The Minister of State for Investment and Privatisation, Hon. Evelyn Anite commended President Museveni for being a visionary leader who has transformed Uganda.
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