Four local government officials in Amuru District reportedly turned to moneylenders to repay funds they misappropriated under the Parish Development Model (PDM) scheme.
Earlier this month, Amuru District Administrative Manager (CAO), Thomson Obong, ordered officials to return Shs. 113 million they had embezzled to themselves.
Officials include the district planner, production manager, district service commission secretary, and district business manager.
Information obtained from the CAO office indicates that officials deducted Shs1.9 million from the funds to be disbursed as working capital to each of the 58 Sacco groups in the district.
Mr Obong told the Daily Monitor in an interview on Monday that the accused had been integrated into the district’s PDM supervision and implementation team.
He said the four placed their land titles as collateral to secure loans from banks before the deadline.
Mr Obong said some lenders had contacted the district to confirm staff.
“My district staff are now running to moneylenders, others are placing their land titles as collateral so they can borrow money to pay us back,” he said.
He also said that on Monday officials were jointly left with 8.5 million shillings.
When contacted for comment, the production agent and sales agent declined to comment on the matter.
They referred this reporter to the CAO who they say is speaking on their behalf.
According to data recently released by the PDM secretariat on districts that mishandled PDM funds, Amuru received a total of 412.1 million shillings.
He shelled out 298.2 million shillings while 113.8 million shillings are missing.
The district used part of the funds to recruit parish leaders, train and train parish committees and Saccos. Other funds were used to buy tools and gadgets as well as to manage administrative costs.
Available data indicates that while Amuru lost Shs 113 million, Nwoya lost Shs 208.5 million out of the Shs 312.6 million he received.
Of the Shs 831.3 million Agago received, Shs 49.4 million was lost, of the Shs 511.6 million Kitgum received, he lost Shs 417 million and Gulu lost 9, 5 million Shs out of the 333.9 million Shs he received.