Farmers’ Groups Get A Value Addition Project

KIKUUBE – Kikuube district local government has launched a Shs 850 million project which will facilitate farmer groups to add value to their maize and rice produce.

The project is funded through the Matching Grant Facility (MGF) under the Agriculture Cluster Development Project (ACDP).

ACDP is a five-year government project initiated in 2018 to improve on-farm productivity, production, and volumes of selected agricultural commodities in specific geographical clusters of the country.

Kikuube district is one of the four beneficiary districts in cluster 10.

Under the ACDP scheme, a first-time farmer is supposed to pay 33% of shs 450,000 and the government tops up the remaining balance.

In the second season, both the government and farmers pay 50% of the money and at the third season, the government pays 33% while the farmer takes the bigger share, 67% of the payment.

The government initiated the Matching Grant Facility (MGF) to assist farmers get good harvests as well as add value to their produce and to also improve road infrastructure to connect farmers to markets.

Speaking during the launch of the project, Barnabus Ntume, the Kikuube district Production Officer explained that 12 farmer groups applied for the Matching Grant Facility (MGF) but only five were considered after they met the requirements.

The qualified farmers’ groups include; Kyangwali farmer’s group in Kyangwali sub-county which received shs 150million, Twimuke Savings Internal Lending Community Association (TSILCA) got shs180 million, Wambabya Community Development Cooperative Society (WDCS) received shs 180 million, Bunyoro Turihamu Cooperative Society (BTCS) received shs181 million all from Kiziranfumbi sub-county and Banyakole Tweyombeke Association in Buhimba sub-county received shs 150 million.

According to Ntume, the funds are going to be used to construct processing house facilities and equipping the facilities with maize miller machines.

“The first criteria we considered for the groups to get the Matching Grant Facility, was the number of farmers that a group has registered on the e-voucher system (farmers Benefiting from ACDP project)” he explained. He added that the qualified groups were also required to pay a co-funding of 33% of the total Matching Grant Facility.

He added that the district is also expecting to get a Matching Grant of shs 700 million to improve on the road networks in the district.

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He added that this money is aimed at addressing the challenges failing the farmers to easily access the market for their agricultural produce.

Launching the project, Peter Banura, Kikuube district boss explained that farmers managed to get the funding because they were organized and called on more farmers to form groups to ensure that they benefit from the government projects.

He challenged the beneficiary groups to sensitize their members on the issue of post-harvest handling methods to ensure quality of production adding that poor handling of crops after harvest is affecting markets.

He added that Kikuube district has the capacity to be a food basket for Bunyoro region once farmers get united and practice commercial agriculture.

He also promised to link up the farmer groups to different organizations such as the World Food Program to address the issue of market if they get organized and start producing quality produce.

Kikuube district Secretary for Production, Nicholas Kiiza, commended the government for the funding, adding that once the projects get completed, the farmers will start adding value to their agricultural produce.

However, he warned the contractors against producing shoddy work and beneficiaries to monitor the projects to ensure value for money after the completion of the projects.

Man Lawrence and Benon Tusigwire, board chairpersons for Kyangwali Farmers and Wambabya Community Development Cooperative Society respectively, commended the government for supporting them to establish the processing house facilities adding that once completed, the farmers will be able to process their produce and sell finished products instead of selling grains.

However, they said that their associations have no means of transport to facilitate farmers to transport their produce from the farms to stores and tractors and called upon the district local government to lobby and get them such agricultural machineries.

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Cooperators Challenged To Go Digital

UGANDA – Cooperators have been challenged to go digital in order to overcome any unanticipated challenges similar to what the Covid-19 pandemic has done to the business sector in Uganda.

This was revealed on Tuesday during the virtual zoom meeting organized by Uganda Cooperatives Savings and Credit Union (UCSCU) to check on how its primary cooperatives are performing despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dr Sylvester Ndiroramukama, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Uganda Co-operatives Savings and Credit Union (UCSCU), encouraged SACCO heads to adopt digitalisation to run cooperatives rather than waiting for Covid-19 to come to an end for physical activities to continue.

“As SACCOs, we need to innovate so that we are able to serve our members at the union level. At the union, we have redefined some new products that you can put to use. One of them is Management Information System (MIS), the accounting software because of the high default rate in SACCOs as a result of the pandemic,” Ndiroramukama explains.

“We also had to look at some other partners to solve the issue of loan defaults and that is how we came up with GnuGrid which is a provider of credit reference services that is duly licensed by Bank of Uganda,” he added.

The meeting attended by dozens of cooperatives’ leaders from the different regions also extracted measures and opportunities that Covid-19 has brought to cooperatives in Uganda.

According to Muzaffar Kinalwa, the Information Communication and Technology (ICT) Manager at UCSCU, this was the third of its kind and more weekly meetings will be held by UCSCU on cooperative identity and information sharing to serve its primary members.

Rita Nansitu-General Manager Sao Zirobwe SACCO embarked on M-SACCO application which enabled them to run cooperative affairs normally without the Covid-19 hinderances during the first & second lockdown.

“M-SACCO came on market in the last quarter of 2018 and its uptake has been low but ever since the Covid-19 lockdown, many people have subscribed as one of the strategies of accessing our services,” said Nansitu.

“People can save, withdraw and pay their loans using the system at a much lower cost and excluding themselves from physical contacts that puts them at risk of getting infected with Covid-19,” says Nansitu.

She adds that the SACCO’s resilience to keep operating despite the Covid-19 challenges has built confidence and trust to increase on their savings.

“During the first lockdown in March 2020, members rushed to pick their money thinking that maybe we are going to close but the fact that we kept operating, the persistence has guaranteed our members who had withdrawn their money to resave with us and our savings have grown tremendously despite the pandemic,” Nansitu explains.

However, she says that the SACCO’s annual work plan slowed down as a result of Covid-19 as loan disbursement was not achieved as budgeted.

“We had targets within our annual work plan but most of them have been disrupted. For instance, our loan portfolio disbursement was greatly affected because we could not continue giving loans yet most of our members were defaulting,” says Nansitu.

“For the very first time, we realized an increase in loan default rates because of closure of businesses. We also registered a reduction in savings. Even those who had little savings had to come for them to stock food such that they can survive the uncertainty of Covid-19,” adds Angella Nabatanzi, the Branch Manager ,Wakiso Self Help SACCO.

She also said, the SACCO suffered some expenditures as it went ahead to support some of the vulnerable members in the community.

“We also realized an increase in expenditure as we had to stick to our principle of supporting our clients through the hard times,” says Nabatanzi.

Contrary to urban SACCOs, Patrick Dramadri, the General Manager Oleba SACCO says Covid-19 came by surprise but the SACCO has continued to register a dramatic increase in both savings and membership.

“As opposed to urban SACCOs where they experienced withdraws, on our side which is rural based, our saving portfolio has shoot up while the membership is also getting high,” says Dramadri.

Oleba is a small but steady growing SACCO in West Nile with a total savings of Shs 513million, loan portfolio of Shs 487million and a membership base of 2,300.

Also, Henry Indema, General Manager Moyo SACCO says the institution has registered an increase in savings during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“To our surprise, savings have increased because most of the money which is supposed to be invested in businesses is now in savings and also an increase in membership because we realized that more people are coming to register within this period of Covid-19 meaning that the pandemic has taught the community how to save for the future,” Indema explained.

However, Indema says this never stopped some of the institution’s credit products from losing market.

“There is a reduction in demand for loan products such as school fees loans as a result of closure of schools during the pandemic,” he revealed.

He adds that SACCOs are also suffering with unclear government communication on loans and repayment by clients.

“Most clients have taken the communication from the president that they are not supposed to pay the loans and this has affected the quality of loan recoveries as many have adamantly refused to pay,” Indema said.

Dicky Byamukama, General Manager Lyamujungu SACCO used the virtual platform to narrate how he survived Covid-19 in the month of June 2021.

“I must confess that I am a survivor of this pandemic and I remember when I was in self isolation for 14 days, I tried by all means to keep it to myself so that the business is not affected but the problem of stigma could not hold,” Byamukama testifies about his experience at the sick bay.

He says his contraction of the novel Covid-19 never spared the institution as members got frightened from accessing financial services directly from the SACCO.

“I don’t know how it leaked to members and they started spreading rumours that all Lyamujungu staff had contracted the disease yet it was only me. This information discouraged SACCO members from doing aggressive savings because of the stigma effect,” Byamukama emphasized.

He adds that the suspension of specific businesses like churches and schools also affected the performance of SACCOs.

“Churches are still closed meaning that church goers can no longer attend services yet we had given loans to some churches and teachers as our pertinent clients and now they cannot meet their repayment schedule,” Byamukama said.

Despite the pandemic, Byamukama says Lyamujungu SACCO has also managed to increase members’ savings.

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“During the pandemic we registered an increase in savings to an extent that we have some fixed deposits with other commercial banks because people are no longer taking money for investment but only saving,” says Byamukama.

Lyamujungu SACCO is one of the oldest SACCOs in Uganda that started its operations in 1984. It has a total membership of 23,000 members, savings of more than shs 4billion and loan portfolio of over shs 8billion.

Solutions to Covid-19

Nansitu advised cooperatives to reduce the expenses and pay attention to only inevitable expenses.

For Nabatanza, she asked SACCO leaders to restructure member loans to amounts deemed affordable to them for payment.

“You also need to restrict the lending and emphasize that disbursement is only done to members with businesses which are still operating,” she advised.

Nabatanza also encouraged SACCOs to sensitize their members about business diversification

“Engage members to start up small capital businesses that require minimal capital enabling them to cater for their families and also make small payments to service their loans,” she further explained.

Indema advised cooperatives to focus on investment rather than savings.

“This is a period of investment in short term loans, a period of investment in mobilizing fair capital from the community. It is a period of sensitizing our clients and a time of giving them massive financial literacy education so that the community and the client would be in position to know what they are supposed to do,” Indema explained.

“If we are to do that, we shall continue to have more clients, more savings and more capital but if we are not doing that, I am sure most SACCOs are going to close because savings is a long-term liability,” he said.

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Nwoya Under Attack By The Foot And Mouth Disease

NWOYA – Nwoya district is under quarantine to curtail the spread of foot and mouth disease that has reportedly infected hundreds of animals.

The disease has reportedly attacked livestock farms in the two sub-counties of Purongo and Anaka over the last three weeks as the district battles to control the outbreak.

Foot and mouth disease is one of the contagious livestock diseases which affects the cloven-hoofed animals that include cattle, buffalos, sheep, goats, pigs and camels among others.

The disease spreads in animals through breathe from infected animals, salvia, mucus, milk and feaces among others which presents in animals with fever, skin rash and sour mouth.

Although the World Organization of Animal Health reveals that many of the animals can recover, the report points out that the disease leaves animals mainly weak and debilitated with losses in production.

At least 323 cattle in Nwoya District have contracted the disease while 18 of the animals have so far died from the affected areas.

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The disease was first detected from Purongo and has so far killed 10 animals from the area with 78 others battling the disease while 8 more died from Anaka sub-county and 229 are infected, said Emmanuel Orach, the District Chairman for Nwoya.

Emmanuel further disclosed in a recent interview with theCooperator that this foot and mouth disease is suspected to have spread into the area from the wild animals at Murchison Falls Park.

Orach explained that a buffalo which presented signs and symptoms of the disease came in contact with many cattle before it died in the area barely three days before the outbreak.

The Nwoya District Veterinary Officer, Emmanuel Okwir, noted that the district is under quarantine which started three days ago to control infections from other sub-counties.

“We don’t know when the measures will be relaxed but that will depend on the number of cases in the district and we expect the famers to abide by the regulations,” Okwir added.

Hanji Bashir, the Communication Manager at the Uganda Wildlife Authority says they are yet to conduct an investigation into the park to ascertain the condition.

Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Industry, Frank Tumwebaze has cautioned the district to observe measures in controlling the infections as they wait for vaccination of the animals.

He has also ordered for a total shutdown of movement of animals from the affected areas to the neighboring districts though he noted that the quarantine is not sustainable to the economy.

“We don’t have enough vaccines as you may know that many parts of the country are equally affected by the same disease but the Ministry will ration drugs to support the district,” Frank told theCooperator.

He urged the neighboring districts of Omoro, Oyam and Amuru to keep watch on their respective areas to avoid the mass infection into the region.

Michael Oketta, a livestock farmer from Latoro parish in Purongo sub-county says he is facing a challenge to graze his animals for fear of the infections from the neighboring villages.

“I have confined my animals in a very small piece of land but the challenge is that I am to watch over them and I can’t go to work in my gardens,” Oketta explained.

Alfred Opiyo, the Gulu District Veterinary Officer told theCooperator that the district has not registered any case but noted that the district has informed the extension workers to monitor the farmers.

According to the veterinary reports, its treatment is very expensive which involves washing of the sores using antiseptic solution on a daily basis for at least seven days that most farmers cannot afford.

The farmers are also advised to apply wound spray which has antibiotics onto the animal except in the mouth so as to prevent secondary infections.

Nwoya County Member of Parliament Tony Awany told theCooperator that he will procure antibiotics in the next one week to support the farmers to contain the infections.

“Am using the Shs 200 million that parliament gave me to buy a car to procure some antibiotics for the farmers who are vulnerable to the infections,” Awany explained in an interview.

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Pineapple Farmers Are Demanding For A Factory

NTUGAMO – Farmers in Ntungamo are crying over the continuous drop in pineapple prices in the district.

Justus Tayebwa, a renowned pineapple farmer, blames the drop in prices on the Covid-19 lockdown which has continued to haunt farmers in the district.

Tayebwa owns over 10 acres of pineapple gardens in Nyaruhama cell, Nyamukana town council, Ntungamo district but laments the low sales.

During an exclusive interview over the weekend, Tayebwa told theCooperator that pineapple businesses in the district came to a standstill after the president announced the second Covid-19 lockdown in June 2021.

He says the traders who used to buy their pineapples from Kampala at a relatively higher price ceased coming to their gardens.

“We used to sell our pineapples to business people from Kampala but after the declaration of the lockdown, these traders have never appeared to our gardens again. A trader would be willing to buy but then tells you where will I sell them when hotels like Serena and the rest are all closed?” Tayebwa explained.

He says that farmers were left with no option but resort to roadside trading to avoid their products from getting bad.

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“Roadside stalls have increased in number and even some of our pineapple farmers are running after any passing vehicle to at least reduce the number of pineapples getting bad from the gardens,” Tayebwa added.

He says that a pineapple which used to be bought at Shs 1000 at farm price is now being sold between Shs 300-500.

“Looking at the ongoing circumstances, I can assure you that we are being cheated by buyers because they take advantage of the fact that we are stuck with these pineapples in the gardens,” Tayebwa emphasizes.

“We invest a lot but they buy our pineapples cheaply, at least they would be buying them at Shs 2000 counting on what we go through up to the harvesting time especially during the dry seasons,” he adds.

Tayebwa called upon the government to construct an active pineapple fruit processing factory in the district that would consume the production in Nyamukana hills, a famous area for pineapple growing.

“We are entirely pineapple growers and I would like to confirm that each family in Nyamukana town council has at least a pineapple garden. It may not be all that big but some even harvest about 5-6 trucks in a season though we’ve been let down by the market,” he said.

Tayebwa also attributed the low pineapple market on impassable roads in the newly elevated town council.

“Our pineapple market is bad because of poor infrastructure such as roads and electric power connections that cause poor mobility and smooth running of businesses. So, we appeal to the new town council leaders to work on our roads to enable our produce to gain market,” he said.

Tayebwa says that development in Nyamukana has turned to a night mare as per farmers’ expectations due to increased pineapple production in the area.

“Because we have high pineapple production, we expected government support with factories for our pineapples to gain momentum in the area but this has not come true. Since business inception, it has instead worsened the pineapple prices thus low standards of living,” he explained.

Tayebwa employs about 35 casual laborers and expected about Shs 1billion from pineapple growing at the end of the year.

However, Nathan M. Kahangirwe, the Chairperson Nyakihanga Fruits and Vegetable Growers’ Cooperative Society says the district has a fruit factory that was commissioned in January 2020 but has failed to perform to the farmers’ expectations.

According to Kahangirwe, the factory was established by the Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI) and it cost shs. 1.4billion. It was expected to process 700 pineapples producing over 111 litters in an hour. It was also supposed to operate eight hours a day absorbing a total of 5600 pineapples.

Tayebwa says that none of the farmers in the district has ever supplied it with about 500-1000 pineapples since last year.

“We thought everything was going to be sorted but instead the situation has worsened because it processes on a slow pace compared to the high pineapple production in the area,” says Tayebwa.

He instead appealed to the government to add two more pineapple factories to boost pineapple processing in order to address market related issues in the area.

Kahangirwe says as a leadership, they decided to suspend the operations of the factory due to numerous challenges that require government intervention.

He says that the mechanical part of the factory is incomplete adding that they also need filling and packing machines.

“We were packing our juice from the factory manually but to improve on capacity production, we need additional parts for packing to improve on quality and time management,” Kahangirwe explained.

He says that they are also faced with a challenge of human resource since they don’t have qualified staff to operate the squeezer and boilers in the factory.

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Hoima Sugar Company Limited Accused Of Grabbing Farmers’ Land

KIKUUBE – Residents of Rwekobe and Rwembaho villages in Kabwoya Sub-County, Kikuube district have accused Hoima Sugar Company Limited (HSCL), an Indian owned company for grabbing their land for sugarcane growing.

The accusation was made by residents who on Monday stormed the offices of Kikuube district local government protesting a planned eviction from their land by the Company.

A group of over 40 residents led by their Local Council 1(LC1) chairperson stormed the district headquarters seeking intervention of the district leadership into their misery.

In 2017, Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom offered 22 square miles for 99-years lease to Hoima Sugar Company Limited, to grow sugarcane.

National Forestry Authority (NFA) dragged Hoima Sugar Company Limited to court challenging the occupancy claiming that the land was part of Bugoma forest reserve; but on 25th April, 2019, Masindi High Court ruled that Hoima Sugar Company Limited was the rightful occupant of the 22 square miles of land.

This ruling attracted massive protests from the residents and environmental activists across the globe that included European Union (EU) Ambassadors who last year visited the forest and condemned all those behind the destruction of the forest for sugarcane growing.

Such protests forced the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) to deny Hoima Sugar Company Limited 13 square miles and allowed it only nine square miles out of the 21 square miles, which NEMA deemed fit for human activity since it was grassland (no forest cover).

Residents claimed that the land referred to by NEMA is theirs and Hoima Sugar Company Limited is encroaching on their land.

Flex Akankwasa, the Rwekobe village chairperson said that the sugar company management with support from Uganda Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF) officers commanded by one Col Morgan Mpeka are giving residents sleepless nights. According to him, the company took advantage of the lockdown, invaded the villages and started grading people’s gardens and homes.

He added that many of his residents are now homeless after the sugar company encroached on their land and demolished their houses.

He accused the sugar company for illegally grabbing the residents’ land adding that the land claimed by the company is not part of the land which NEMA allocated to the company.

He called for government’s intervention to ensure that the residents get back their land before they could take laws into their own hands.

“They took advantage of lockdown, when people could not be allowed to move, invaded our villages and chased people from their land, when the President lifted the lockdown on transport means, we also got a chance to come and seek intervention from our leaders,” he said and demanded government to stop the activities of the sugar company so that the residents regain their land.

Gerald Tusabomu, a resident says since last month, many crop gardens including banana, coffee, mangoes and jack fruit plantations have been destroyed by graders belonging to the sugar company.

Tusabomu, who claimed that he has so far lost 15 acres of land, wondered why the company is not using the land which was allocated to it by NEMA for sugarcane growing and decided to grab land owned by residents.

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He says that the residents are living in misery due to harassment from the army deployed in the area and called for the district leadership intervention to avoid confrontation.

“We have no food to feed our families since our gardens have been graded by Hoima sugar, we request our leaders to intervene and return our land,” he cried.

Charles Twogyirwe, Chairperson of Rwebaho village said that several houses have been demolished adding that he is currently housing over 20 women and their children who were evicted from their land.

“Generally there is no peace in the area, there is a lot of harassment in the village, houses have been demolished, goats and chicken are being eaten by this group. I have 20 women and their children at my home and am thinking of bringing them to the district because I no longer have food to feed them,” Charles Twogyirwe also cried for help.

John Kabandize of Kabandize and Co Advocates, the residents’ lawyer accused the company agents of harassing and raping women and girls, denying residents access to water sources, gardens and torturing them, saying such acts of impunity should stop.

He wondered how a foreigner can use the country’s army to harass the citizens whom they are mandated to protect adding that before the eviction, the residents petitioned several offices for help but all in vain.

“We know how investors operate, this is not an investor, he is just a land grabber, and you cannot just come and invade Bataka because you’re an investor. Where should they go? We are going to use different ways; we are going to use media, the power of residents and law to ensure that people get back land,” he said.

Vincent Alpha Opio, the Kikuube district Vice Chairman condemns the illegal acts of Hoima Sugar Company Limited saying that district leaders are to investigate the matter and come up with a comprehensive report.

“We need development but it should not cause problems to our people. As district leaders, we are not ready to experience the incident of Kigyayo in Kiziranfumbi where hundreds of people were evicted from their land by the same company,” he added. He promised the residents to do the needful to address their concerns.

Joseph Twegonze the Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom land supervisor says that it was wrong for the company to start cultivation without opening boundaries to ascertain where the company land begins and ends.

He demanded the government to halt the activities of Hoima sugar company, adding that opening of boundaries on the contested land is the only solution to the stand-off between the residents and the company.

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Cooperatives Are Key In Modern Farming Methods

AMURU – After the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) and Uganda People’s Defense Forces’ (UPDF) insurgency, the biting poverty at the time forced those who had returned from the Internally Displaced Camps (IDPs) to join hands and form Lamogi Cooperative Society Limited (LCSL) where they have been able to learn modern farming methods as well as other skills.

The two decades war in the region displaced more that 1.5 million people into IDPs; tens of thousands lost their lives, and properties were destroyed.

However, upon joining the farmers society, they have learnt better savings skills and modern farming methods according to Okeny Justine, the chairperson of the cooperative.

Since the population was returning to ruined homes, the only solution was to come together in a cooperative so that we can help ourselves, noted Okeny.

“We could not help each other at that time, but we sat and the only solution was to form a group that later saw us having a cooperative in place; and to date we are able to sort out our problems,” he said.

The cooperative has 100 groups, with each group having 30 members.

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To date in many homes, people are able to have basics in life ranging from daily meals, medical care, and school fees since most of them have leant better farming methods.

Nyakabale Joyce, one of the beneficiaries says she is able to produce what she takes at the cooperative and also have surplus for domestic consumption.

“Modern farming has been key, many stakeholders reached out to us, taught us how to grow both commercial crops and food crops so that as we look at selling what we produce, our families are also catered for in terms of food production,” said Nyakabale

Olanya Patrick, a member of the cooperative, has been able to acquire better farming practices and also to engage in farming as a business.

“Our eyes have been opened, we have been able to tap grants that have helped us to open land on large scale thus helping in large crop production,” he said.

We have come together and put in place a revolving fund which enables members to save their money and borrow whenever in need at a low interest rate.

Komakech Simon Peter, the Amuru District Agricultural Officer (DAO), said since the members are under an organized group, accessing them has been easy and they have been availed with agriculture inputs that has boosted their production.

Market accessibility has also been an added advantage, they can sell in bulk, get storage facilities and markets have been eased as well.

“I must tell you that dealing with a cooperative is easier than working as an individual, there are government projects that target majorly organized groups in terms of grants and they have been able to benefit,” he said.

In the areas of saving, they have received training from microfinance intuitions, together with district commercial officers.

They have taken them through financial literacy hence boosting their saving culture.

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NUSAF Implementation Under Investigations

GULU – Gulu District Local Government (GDLG) has subjected all implementation of the different projects under the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF) to investigations.

The implementation of the third phase of the program was a five-year World Bank funded project being implemented in the 66 districts across Northern Uganda which ended in June this year.

The program was launched in the early 2000 to help the districts across the region catch up with the rest of Uganda which then in the late 1990 enjoyed economic growth rates between 5 to 7 percent.

The different interventions aimed at fighting poverty using a combination of four factors by building the infrastructures, income generating activities, conflict management and institutional development.

However, NUSAF suffered a tainted image as a result of allegations of corruption where the government officials and the service providers were accused of embezzlement and doing sub-standard work.

With widespread complaints of accountability, the government was skeptical whether to continue with the program but Soroti’s success story became a guarantee for the second and the third phases.

At least 1,795 different projects in the implementing districts of the third phase of the program were targeted in 71,161 households according to the 2020 report by Operation Wealth Creation (OWC).

Gulu District, among other implementing districts, received Shs 9.6 billion for a total of 343 different projects reportedly implemented in the district from 2016 to June 2021.

However, as the program phased off a month ago, some of the projects which received funding had stalled and this drew concerns from the new district leaders.

Among the projects is the community access road of Shs 58 million of Rwot Obilo Health Centre III to Atiaba village and the institutional greening at Zion Nursery and Primary School worth Shs 22.1 million.

With various reports of alleged mismanagement of funds and shoddy work, the District Executive Committee (DEC) recently summoned the technocrats to respond to these allegations.

The Engineering team which was then assigned with the task of approval of the technical works in the implementation of the projects denied the approval of some of the projects but failed to name them.

Opio Ateker Christopher, the District Chairman instructed the Internal Auditor and Chief Finance Officer (CFO) to produce the audit report of the different projects, a matter that was protested by the technocrats.

Okech Goretti, the Community Development Officer (CDO) who doubles as the focal point person says the new projects had achieved their intended objectives and that there was no need for the investigations.

However, at Zion Nursery and Primary School, the fund meant for the institutional greening was diverted to fencing of the school, tree planting with a smaller portion of the compound beautified with flowers.

Okot Peter, the Chairperson Zion Nursery and Primary School Institutional Greening Project told theCooperator in an interview that the diversion of the project followed pressure from the technocrats.

Though he declined to provide more details, Opige Samuel, the secretary of the group revealed that the diversion had reduced the wage allowance of the group members.

He explained that each of the 68 members was to get Shs 82,000 paid at the end of the project but ended up with only Shs 56,000 while 15 percent was remitted to the bank as their revolving fund.

https://thecooperator.news/drainage-channel-construction-at-pece-stream-stalls/

Okia Collin, the Local Councilor II of Atyaba Parish in Bungatira sub-county commended the district leaders for instituting the investigations.

He revealed that Shs 16 million of the funds were meant for the wage allowances which was reduced to less than Shs 6 million, the variation he says needs audit and investigations.

Ongwech Balington P’ Olweny, the Gulu District Secretary Community Services blamed the incident on lack of coordination between the technocrats and the elected leaders.

“There was inflation of budgets and you could clearly see that money has gone into the wrong hands” Olweny alleged.

Preliminary investigations amounted to the arrest of two technocrats in the district and three other group members whose identities were not disclosed.

Twongyeirwe Justus, the Officer in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at Gulu Central Police Station confirmed the arrest but declined to name the suspects.

He noted that the police were yet to open up a general inquiry file to commence the investigations of the alleged mismanagement of funds and corruption into the projects.

The third phase of NUSAF’s implementation was placed directly to contribute to the World Bank strategy of reducing poverty and to share prosperity in the northern districts.

The funds were divided into the four major components of labor-intensive public works and disaster risk financing which was allocated $ 61 million, livelihood investment support of $ 43.50 Million, Safe net mechanisms and project management $ 20.50 million, strengthening of transparency, accountability and anti-corruption was allocated $ 5 million.

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