A project to resettle the Batwa, based in the Semuliki Forest in Bundibugyo District, has hit a dead end following accusations that a local NGO handling the project has misappropriated the money.

In a complaint to Police, a copy of which Daily Monitor has seen, the leader of the Batwa wants an investigation into the funds and accuses the NGO, Rural Welfare Development (RWIDE), of building sub-standard houses.

RWIDE is a local NGO which has since 2007 been trying to resettle the pygmies who came from Semuliki forests in Uganda and in forests on the eastern part of DR. Congo.

The Batwa community is one of the minority tribes in Uganda and with an official recorded population of less than 100 people. It is marked as an endangered community. "We, of the above mentioned communities, wish to express our concern about the activities of Rural Welfare Improvement for Development," Chief Jofuley Nzito's letter to the District Police Commander, Bundibugyo reads in part.

In the letter dated September 6, 2009, the chief on behalf of all the Batwa (pygmies) community is accusing Mr Charles Mubiru, the director RWIDE, of misappropriation of funds meant for their projects. "He has taken us from our forest and left us with no means for any sustainable livelihood and no means to access any health care," the chief said.

Mr Nzito indicated in his letter that he has evidence of the misappropriation of funds mainly through inflated prices of the building materials like reeds, poles and iron sheets. He has also accused Mr Mubiru of inflating the prices of land on which he built the official Batwa house, looking down upon the Batwa and failing to provide the necessary assistance to the wife of Mr Wilson Kainta, 20, the only pygmy in school.

He also appealed to the European Union, the funders of the project called Batwa Community Empowerment Project to do a thorough financial audit of Shs181 million that has since been sunk into the project. When contacted, Mr Mubiru said all chief Nzito's allegations were baseless adding that RWIDE contracted some local firms to do some of the work, which firms are responsible for the shoddy work.

He said he contracted a local firm called MMK Engineering Services to carry out the construction work, adding that in the agreement with the donors there was no provision for food and health care for the Batwa.

The DPC was unavailable for comment by press time.