The Uganda People’s Congress(UPC) has said the parish development model is a big undertaking which needs to be done on a pilot scheme, with a few selected parishes from urban and rural areas.
Last week, President Museveni met with NRM MPs at Kololo and asked them to support distribution of one trillion shillings to the population adding that cash distribution centres are going to be set up at parish levels.
The president explained that initial development programs did not succeed because decisions were made by government leaders on behalf of the stakeholders but this did not give the desired results hence the shift.
However, some opposition political parties lashed out at president Museveni’s request for Shs1 trillion to facilitate his new parish development model saying tax payers’ money should not be wasted in unpopular wealth schemes.
During a news conference, UPC said that given the fact a lot of funds have been earmarked for the project across the country, the government needs a lot of caution when rolling out the parish development model.
“Then special guidance is given and challenges noted with practical solutions adopted. By the time the Parish Development Model is to be rolled out to the rest of the country, you already have a valuable information bank! Our People need to be well trained and/or sensitised on how to do household business,” said Sharon Oyat Arach, the party spokesperson.
She said that countries like Italy, Greece, Switzerland, China and India are doing well with the cottage industry.
“The management of such projects is ever a challenge as we have witnessed in the previous initiatives like Emyooga that has been mismanaged and failed to achieve its sole goal thus wasting the taxpayer’s money, ” she noted.
Arach said the parish development model ought to have clearly defined roles for the committee and its respective members.
“Measures of monitoring business activities should be put in place. This would curb the issue of resource diversion from the parish development model to unrelate other activities,” she said.