Dr. Nickson said they discovered that 11 out of the 16 sub-counties in Agago district had not submitted accountability for the money disbursed to them for the training.
Six Community Development Officers in Agago District spent the night at Patongo Central Police Station for allegedly failing to account for Shillings 5.8 million meant for training.
The six were arrested by a team of officials from the PDM Secretariat on Tuesday. Dr. Sunday Nickson, an Economist from the PDM Secretariat, says that they received information from a whistleblower that despite the fact that Agago received money for PDM last financial year, some activities were not implemented well.
The activity in question included training of sub-county chiefs, Cultural and religious leaders at sub-counties, and Parish Development Committee, PDCs, which should have been done in July 2022. Dr. Nickson said they discovered that 11 out of the 16 sub-counties in Agago district had not submitted accountability for the money disbursed to them for the training.
According to Dr. Nickson, they repeatedly asked the CDOs for accountability in vain. He said they have given district authorities up to Friday this week to ensure that sub-counties that did not carry out training do so.
Some of the sub-counties whose CDOs were arrested are Paimol, Adilang Town Council, Omiya Pachwa, Wol, Parabongo, and Adilang Sub-counties. The five others are expected to appear before the police to record statements.
Dr. Nickson said they discovered that some sub-counties submitted reports and accountability even when they did not carry out any training. Leonard Ojok, the Agago District LC V Chairperson, attributed the failure to submit the reports and accountability to negligence. Ojok said even though some of the PDCs and sub-county chiefs confirmed that they were trained, there are no attendance lists to prove that they attended any training.
Ojok said those implicated should take this arrest as a lesson that they must be accountable for every money advanced to them for any activity. Ojok revealed that the accountability of one of the sub-counties was rejected because the name of a trainee who appeared on the attendance list, was accompanied by a phone contact of a resident of Mubende District.
Emmanuel Okot, the Agago Resident District Commissioner has called upon all implementers of government projects to get serious in doing their work.
PDM is a strategy initiated for organizing and delivering public and private sector intervention for Wealth creation and employment generation at the parish level as the lowest economic planning unit. However, a number of officials in several districts have recently been arrested for using the money to benefit themselves.URN
