Kole district leaders, headed by the RDC, MPs, and other technical staff, have cautioned the new PDM SACCO leaders against engaging in acts of corruption and other demands that fall outside the PDM guidelines.

Such practices include extortion, alteration of approved beneficiary names, creation of ghost beneficiaries through the use of people’s national IDs without their knowledge so that leaders benefit multiple times, and the collection of people’s mobile phones and PIN numbers to deny them access to their funds.

This caution was raised on Wednesday at the Kole district headquarters during a meeting between the new PDM SACCO leaders and LC2s from Kole North.

Kole North MP Dr. Samuel Opio Acuti stated that Uganda has 71,214 villages spread across 10,717 parishes. This translates to seven villages per parish.

For Kole North, with 26 parishes and 359 villages, he said this translates to 14 villages—double the national average of seven.

He cited Apac parish in Kole North, which has 28 villages, four times the national average, yet receives shs100 million, the same as parishes with only seven villages. MP Opio therefore called for more PDM money for large parishes.

MP Dr. Opio called on the government to give more PDM funds to large parishes and further cautioned the new leaders against engaging in acts of corruption.

He stated that during payment, some beneficiaries never received their money, citing one particular case in which the PDM SACCO chairman had to be arrested and ordered to refund shs1,000,000.

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The MP also appreciated the Kole District Commercial Office for engaging with the new PDM SACCO leaders to acquaint them with the Model’s guidelines and prohibited practices.

The meeting was presided over by the Kole RDC, Akullu Gillian.

It was heard that some leaders demanded sex to release PDM funds to female beneficiaries.

MP Dr Acuti noted that he had observed that some PDM leaders had opened agency banking services or partnered with bank agents and, during the disbursement of funds, deliberately deducted money from beneficiaries—up to shs200,000.

He called on the leaders to adhere to PDM guidelines and, notably, to ensure that selected beneficiary lists are displayed within each parish and that community vetting is done to eliminate ghost and ineligible beneficiaries.

The Kole North MP urged new leaders to know that the PDM initiative was intended to transform every household, and therefore its impact will be measured by the success stories of households that have been lifted out of the subsistence economy into the money economy in their parishes.

Kole District Commercial Officer Emmanuel Okao, warned leaders against breaking PDM rules and accused them of creating ghost names instead of the rightful beneficiaries.

Okao noted that some group leaders are using their power to add non-members to benefit from the program, warning that any leader found doing so this will face the law.

“It has come to our notice that some PDM SACCO leaders are creating ghost names as beneficiaries, registering some of their relatives, demanding sex from female beneficiaries, and asking members for money under the pretext of helping them access the funds,” he said.

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Kole District RDC Gillian Akullu said that any PDM SACCO leader against whom such allegations are heard will be arrested and taken directly to court. She, therefore, urged everyone to do the right thing at the right time to avoid arrest.

The RDC added that there are high cases of corruption in PDM and restocking in Kole district, and to ensure that all the right beneficiaries benefit from government programs, they will not sit and watch as local people are left out.

RDC Akullu said her security personnel are on standby to respond wherever any such matters arise.