Halima Abdallah K.
28 September 2008
Nairobi — Infighting among government institutions involved in the implementation of Uganda's Bona Bagaggawale -- Prosperity for All -- programme is threatening to derail the multibillion-shilling anti-poverty scheme.
The National Agricultural Advisory Service (NAADS) programme and the Ministry of Finance are involved in a row over late disbursement of funds while several microsavings schemes are fighting for supremacy, claiming to be the right channels for the disbursement of these funds.
NAADS funds, disbursed under the Poverty Alleviation Funds, are not subject to budget cuts and usually come between July and June of the following year but any balances as at June 30 -- before a new financial year kicks in -- must be returned.
"Money is flowing to the NAADS programme quarterly -- in other words it follows the Ministry of Finance cycle, which is rather different from the agriculture cycle. This creates a mismatch between releases and agricultural seasons," said a senior official who preferred not to be named.
More than Ush38 billion ($23.4 million) has already been injected into the programme -- Ush13 billion ($8.02 million) in the last financial year and another Ush25 ($15.4 million) this year.
Officials say the programme -- a 2006 presidential election campaign promise -- risks having achieved nothing by 2011 unless the implementation process steers clear of this infighting which has also attracted politicians.
"Politicians would like to have the funds allocated in their areas but there are guidelines to follow," the official told The EastAfrican.
In 2005, President Yoweri Museveni promised to introduce Universal Secondary Education, mortgage financing, access to credit schemes by households and Bona Bagaggawale in his campaign.
Museveni has now embarked on a countrywide tour to inspect projects initiated by NAADS seven years ago.
Some politicians want farm machinery such as milk coolers and tractors to be stationed in areas that suit their interests, sources said.
Initially, NAADS, a pillar of the Plan for Modernisation of Agriculture concentrated on advising farmers on crop and animal enterprise selection and on training them in best agricultural practices.
This financial year, its mandate was increased to providing technology and spearhead the execution of Prosperity for All, with a total budget of Ush98 billion ($60.4 million).
The president continues to make pledges for poverty eradication like setting up model farms for various enterprises like piggery, cattle, poultry and vegetables.
Officials from the President's Office told The EastAfrican that under these pledges, there is an annual budget of Ush1 billion ($617,283) but arrears arising from unfulfilled pledges now stand at Ush6.5 billion ($4.01 million).
Sources also said the president has directed NAADS officials to be part of his entourage to articulate his agenda till after the March 2011 elections.
But NAADS is worried about delay in disbursement of funds and fears that what they have done so far could be hijacked by vested interests.
"Our problem is that the programme could be hijacked by other interests," said an official.
The government is also employing savings and credit co-operative societies (saccos) to provide friendly loans to farmers and small scale traders to achieve the prosperity goal.
The government assigned Ush14 billion ($8 million) to Uganda Co-operative Savings and Credit Union Ltd, a national organisation for saccos, which is supporting one sacco in each sub-county.
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