Police in the Mt. Moroto region have intensified operations against officials implicated in the mismanagement of the Parish Development Model (PDM), with five public servants arrested in the past week. Mt. Moroto Regional Police Spokesperson Mike Longole said three of the suspects are from Nakapiripirit District, while the other two are from Napak and Nabilatuk districts.
Longole declined to disclose the identities of the suspects, citing ongoing investigations. He said police have reopened all files relating to the implementation of PDM in the region and warned that any public servant found to have irregularly benefited from the programme risks arrest.
“We have so far arrested the public servants who are in charge of PDM for mismanagement of the programme. We have information that PDM is strictly for vulnerable people, but most public servants became beneficiaries,” Longole said. He added that some parish chiefs allegedly used names of people from different parishes to access PDM funds and that police are pursuing them for arrest.
“For now, we want to deal with the implementers of PDM before we shift to recoveries from the beneficiaries,” he said. Longole warned that releasing the names of the suspects at this stage could jeopardise the investigations.
The arrests follow a stakeholders’ engagement on PDM implementation in Karamoja held in Moroto District. The meeting was chaired by a team from the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) headquarters in Kibuli, together with local leaders and State Attorneys.
The meeting focused on the status of PDM fund disbursements and utilisation, follow-up mechanisms for cases of mismanagement and fraud, recovery of funds lost through irregularities, and strengthening coordination between local leaders, police and the Office of the State Attorney to facilitate effective prosecution.
Mt. Moroto Regional Police Commander Edirisa Kyeyune challenged stakeholders to ensure that PDM resources reach the intended beneficiaries and contribute to improved livelihoods. Kyeyune called for closer collaboration among the police, prosecution, local governments and other stakeholders. He also emphasised the need to prioritise sensitisation, monitoring and early detection of risks instead of waiting until funds have been misused.
He urged members of the public to report suspected cases of PDM fund misuse, warning that the misappropriation of government resources undermines public trust. The Parish Development Model is a government programme aimed at transitioning Ugandans still engaged in subsistence production into the money economy through parish-based revolving funds targeting vulnerable households-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
