Minister Alum orders arrest of Kapelebyong officials who received PDM
Alum questioned why civil servants earning government salaries would take money meant to benefit poor people in Kapelebyong and directed the CAO to ensure that such malpractice does not recur.
The Minister said the 32 civil servants (names withheld) must be summoned to police to record statements and interdicted until further notice, even though they had refunded the money.
The Minister of State for Economic Monitoring, Sandra Santa Alum, has directed the arrest of civil servants who illegally benefited from funds under the Parish Development Model (PDM), Emyooga and the cattle restocking programme.
The Minister issued the directive during the launch of her five-day working visit to Teso to monitor the performance of the three government programmes.
The directive led to the arrest of the Kapelebyong District Principal Commercial Officer, Francis Xavier Okello, and the district driver, John Okiror, according to a statement released by the ministry.
The arrests followed reports from Kapelebyong District implicating 32 civil servants in the irregular receipt of Emyooga funds meant for poor and vulnerable people.
According to the Minister, the 32 civil servants include teachers, army officers, police officers, laboratory technicians and school bursars from Obalanga and Okungur sub-counties.
The Chief Administrative Officer, Simon Peter Akileng, said he had initially resorted to naming and shaming the implicated officers by displaying their names at the district headquarters.
He said Sh12m had so far been recovered and returned to the Emyooga SACCO accounts under the 18 earmarked enterprises.
She noted that poverty remains the biggest obstacle to the Government's socio-economic transformation agenda.
The Minister noted that poverty remains the biggest obstacle to the Government's socio-economic transformation agenda.
The Minister said the 32 civil servants (names withheld) must be summoned to police to record statements and interdicted until further notice, even though they had refunded the money.
Records show that Kapelebyong received sh900m under Emyooga and sh2b under PDM.
The Minister of State for Teso Affairs, Clement Kenneth Ongalo Obote, raised concern about why the lives of some people had remained unchanged despite the government injecting billions of shillings into affirmative action programmes.
He called for increased sensitisation and mindset change among communities to encourage them to embrace and take ownership of the programmes to improve their livelihoods.
She urged beneficiaries to repay the money to the 55 PDM SACCO accounts to allow other people to benefit, noting that the funds are meant to operate as a revolving fund.
The Principal Legal Officer at the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, Rene Ndyomugenyi, said the President had directed the arrest of any officer found to have misappropriated funds under the PDM, Emyooga, cattle restocking and other government programmes intended to benefit taxpayers.
Ndyomugenyi, together with Kapelebyong Police, effected the arrest of the commercial officer and the driver.
However, the Minister and her monitoring team were shocked to discover that the Wapala Irrigation Scheme, reportedly constructed on 480 acres, does not exist in Kapelebyong.
The Ministry of Water and Environment, in a report submitted to Operation Wealth Creation, claimed that the district had the biggest irrigation scheme in the area.
However, the Kapelebyong district leadership rejected the claim.
The LC5 chairperson, Jackline Ajego, and the RDC, Tom Otukol Olinga, called for an investigation into the Ministry of Water and Environment over the alleged ghost irrigation scheme.
They said the district had been denied access to water for irrigation, which could have helped protect residents from the effects of drought.