Officials from the Directorate of Socio-Economic Monitoring and Research (DSEMR) in the Office of the President have said they have unearthed mass flaws in the activities of Operation Wealth Creation(OWC) in Acholi and Lango sub-regions.
A team from DSEMR headed by Mr Vincent Tumisiime last week made field visits to selected beneficiaries of OWC in Acholi and Lango in a bid to obtain feedback from intended beneficiaries, regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of the government project.
While a making presentations on their findings during a meeting with stakeholders in Gulu town on Friday last week, Mr Tumisiime, who is the Director DSEMR, revealed that operations of OWC had been marred with gross irregularities.
The meeting was attended by among others, Resident District Commissioners, District Chairpersons, OWC coordinators from Lango and Acholi sub-region and legislators on the Presidential Affairs committee.
Mr Tumisiime highlighted that selection of OWC beneficiaries the two regions had been greatly compromised and that several people had frequently benefited from the programme with the knowledge of OWC coordinators and local leaders.
“During our monitoring camp, we found that there was violation of OWC selection of beneficiaries they[coordinators] didn’t follow the right criteria, we also unearthed many disguised beneficiaries who were not residents in an area but yet they managed to benefit,” Mr Tumisiime said.
He also said that they found a lack of coordination between the district officials and suppliers of OWC inputs which resulted in mismatch of supply of inputs to farmers in the respective sub-regions.
Lt Gen Charles Angina, the Deputy Chief Coordinator of OWC who also attended the meeting acknowledged the challenges facing OWC but noted that some are partly to be blamed on members of parliament who have not been part of the government project.
“Legislators are the commanders of the constituencies but they have been missing in action on this OWC activity, they should accept to their responsibility,” Gen Angina said.
He also faulted the OWC coordinators and local leaders for their inabilities to give reports on what has been happening within their respective areas.
But Ms Susan Amero the Woman Member of Parliament for Amuria district while reacting to Gen Angina’s remarks noted that legislators are not implementers of the project but rather overseers arguing that they can’t be blamed for problems affecting activities of OWC.
DSEMR in the Office of the President was launched early this month with the aim to monitor and evaluate delivery of public services in the country.
Under the arrangement, the team under DSEMR will hold monitoring camps throughout the country to get feedback from service recipients on efficiency and effectiveness.
