On Monday 30th September, 2019, the New Vision published a story full of falsehoods as regards the Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE) Programme. The said story that run in the dailies P.14 makes false and sensational claims to the effect that;
1.Over 6,590 ghost beneficiaries have been discovered on the
SAGE payroll.
2. The said ghost beneficiaries receive SAGE money.
3. Staff and relatives of deceased beneficiaries connive to continue receiving the SAGE
Money of deceased beneficiaries.
4. Investigations are underway to establish how ghost beneficiaries entered on the pay roll.
In a statement released by the Mr. James Ebitu, the Interim Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Gender, Labour & Social Development, the story published by the daily is full of incorrect and false accusations.
The Ministry through the statement further reiterated that the SAGE programme has been successful and credible based on its good practices and systems.
“Over the years, every step of the SAGE Programme has been meticulously planned and appropriate systems put in place to deal with every process,” the statement read in part.
The SAGE Programme started as a pilot in 15 districts. The pilot period 2010-2015 was specifically intended to develop and test systems for delivery of social grants in
Uganda. By the end of the pilot in 2015, this objective had been achieved.
As a result of this and based on this, the Government decided to roll out the grants to an additional 40 districts in a phased manner between Financial 2015/16- 2020/21, using systems that have been put in place. And as it is already public knowledge, both Parliament and Cabinet resolved to roll out the grants to the whole country starting in FY 2019/20. This could not have happened without irrefutable systems.
The statement also added that there are no ghost beneficiaries in the SAGE payroll as the New Vision reported. The 6,590 that The New Vision quoted as ghost beneficiaries are actually the average number of beneficiaries that pass on every year.