Busia CAO warns officers over youth fund

Technical officers in Busia district have been cautioned against demanding for kickbacks from beneficiaries which led to the failure of phase one youth livelihood project.

The area chief administrative officer Walter Iriama said the youth project in the financial year 2014-15 failed because after the money had been given to groups some district and some county officials followed the beneficiaries demanding for kickbacks.

He said the sub county chiefs and sub accountants accompanied the youth chairperson to the bank to withdraw money and shared it on the way denying the beneficiaries a chance to implement enterprises they had selected because they lacked enough money.

The district in the first phase of the youth project received shillings 423 million which benefited forty eight group but only sh6m has been recovered.

"Sub county chiefs, sub accountants and community development officers have no role in sharing the youth groups' money," Iriama said adding that their role is ensuring that the beneficiaries implemented.

He was addressing the youth groups in Chango Machyo hall at the district headquarters during a meeting caused to know the implementation status and to avert the previous crisis.

The government, Iriama said had put in a lot of money to empower the youths to live a better life and asked the beneficiaries to use the money well to contribute towards making Uganda a middle income country by 2020.

He directed the sub count staffs to start making weekly reports on the implementation status of the project.