Serere District has disbursed sh90m to quark journalists

By Correspondent 

Serere district Members of Parliament have raised a red flag over the criteria the district officials used to disburse  sh90m to quack journalists under the presidential initiative on wealth and job creation dubbed as Emyooga.

Statistics from the office of the District Commercial Officer, Simon Opolot, indicates that Serere district received sh1,680,000,000 which was distributed to various SACCOs across the three counties of Kasilo, Serere and Pingire.

During the meeting between the Members of Parliament, district leaders and the Chairpersons of Emyooga SACCOs, to review and evaluate the progress of Emyooga program, it was found out that the district erroneously appropriated sh90m to quacks who disguised themselves as journalists.

Opolot said, of more than 180 registered SACCOs in the district, 3 were journalists’ SACCOs. The SACCOs include; Pingire Journalists SACCO, Kasilo Journalists SACCO and Serere Journalists SACCO which received sh30m each and shared it amongst their respective associations established at parish level.

The revelation left the Members of Parliament wondering how Serere district was able to form journalists SACCO per county yet the number of practicing journalists in the district has been less than 10 journalists.

This report was presented to the Members of Parliament who included; the Minister of State for Fisheries, Hellen Adoa, who also doubles as Serere district Woman MP, Patrick Okabe (MP Serere County), Fred Opolot (Pingire County) and Kasilo Member of Parliament Elijah Okupa.

The Kasilo Member of Parliament, Elijah Okupa who was the team leader of the Members of Parliament cited a lot of irregularities in the report presented by the District Commercial Officer, Simon Opolot. He said that the report didn’t reflect the amount of funds disbursed to the SACCOs and the date they received it.

In her submission, Hellen Adoa, the Minister of State for Fisheries said that she carried out an on-ground independent investigation prior to the meeting and found out that a number of members in the SACCOs and associations across the district are ghosts.

“During the visit, most associations were there but as it is, with many situations, there are bad apples. Some of the groups are not among the intended beneficiaries.

According to Adoa, Shs 30m which the district appropriated to Pingire County Journalists SACCO ended in the hands of masquerades totalling to Shs 90m.

Speaking in a tough tone, Adoa said, three of the SACCOs were composed of non-journalists disguising themselves as journalists while the purported performing artist’s SACCO was also made up of non-artists.

“I personally made calls to some of the members purported to be journalists in these respective SACCOs, unfortunately they denied being in any journalists SACCO,” she said.

The Member of Parliament for Serere County Patrick Okabe, blamed the district technocrats for disbursing funds to wrong beneficiaries without verifying.

“It’s sickening to learn that the district went ahead to disburse money to wrong members without verification. The Money has gone into the wrong hands. How can a small constituency of Pingire have 43 Journalists? It’s unbelievable but needs further probing,” Okabe questioned.

He suspected that some of the members in the journalists’ SACCOs disguising themselves as journalists are relatives of the sub-county or district technical staffs.

Okabe said that he has received a series of complaints from the public saying the fund intended to fight unemployment among the masses, is mismanaged to benefit a few who are not eve…