Habits of multiple access to loans and deception by some beneficiaries have been identified as serious impediment to the successful implementation of the Parish Development Model (PDM) program, the latest government’s strategy for transforming all households from subsistence into the money economy.
In 2022, the government started implementing PDM as another poverty alleviation scheme, targeting various income-generating enterprises at parish levels, as the lowest unit for planning and development across the country.
Under the program implementation framework, the beneficiaries mobilize themselves into a multipurpose parish Cooperative and Credit Organization-SACCOs, which government directly capitalizes with 100 million shillings to be utilized as revolving fund for the different enterprise groups based at household levels.
But the 2025 annual audit report by the Auditor General, highlights that the program is already riddled with administrative inconsistencies that frustrate its ability to fulfill its intended pillar objective of poverty eradication across the country.
The report observes that in the sampled 108 local governments inspected in the 2025 audit year; in 34, a total of 2,336 households in 506 PDM SACCOs had received parish development funds multiple times, in violation of the program guidelines.
In 42 local governments, 109 beneficiaries in 86 PDM SACCOs had non-existent projects despite receiving the funds.
A total 328 beneficiary households in 52 local governments did not procure the planned items required to implement the funded projects, thus leaving shillings 263.8 million diverted to others uses. In 55 local governments, 619 beneficiary households in 267 PDM SACCOs had implemented ineligible projects.
The audit also established that in 62 PDM SACCOs, a sum of shillings 106.29 million could not be accounted for yet the money had been received and withdrawn from their account but had not been disbursed to benefiting households.
Generally according to Auditor General, the accounting officers attributed the problems to technical challenges with the PDM information management systems, data inconsistencies and missing beneficiary information, limited capacity and compliance issues among SACCO leaders, as well as procedural bottlenecks in beneficiary verification and preparation processes.
However, Peter Ssenkungu, the Masaka district former Masaka District NRM Chairperson observes the audit findings as a pointer to the bigger problem, which is threatening the well-intended program.
He indicates that they have obtained reports of connivance between the program’s monitors and the technical teams that are responsible of selecting the eligible beneficiaries to create ghost beneficiaries, leading to misuse of funds.
He cites insistences in Masaka district where, unscrupulous individuals have connived to manipulate the system and created nonexisting beneficiaries thereby embezzling part of the money
Ssenkungu has challenged the implementing program implementing agencies to come out tough on syndicates that are abusing the good of the scheme, which he says is capable of transforming livelihoods of many people.
He also prefers that the government makes administrative adjustments in the implementation of PDM program by increasing on the capital allocations to the beneficiaries such that they can increase on the value of their enterprises.
