Aid cut hinders Nakapiripit road projects

The development partners decision of suspending the $15m

donor aid to Uganda due to corruption related in the Office of
the Prime Minister activities affected the Nakapiripirit District
road plans of maintenance and constructing new ones, P. 3
Daily Monitor

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2013 www.monitor.co.ug

PRDP JOURNAL

IN
PARTNERSHIP
WITH
Development Network
of Indigenous Voluntary
Associations

Children fetch
water from
the incomplete
Namalu water
source located
in Nakapiripirit
District. The
project to have
piped water in
Namalu village
was halted
following the
aid cut by
the donors
who used
to fund such
programmes.
PHOTO BY NELSON
WESONGA

Aid suspension jolts local communities

Suspension. Following the Auditor Generals
report about the mismanagement of the donors
money development partners opted to suspend
their funding to Uganda.
By NELSON WESONGA
nwesonga@ug.nationmedia.com

t is now a year since some development partners suspended more than

$300m financial aid to Uganda.
Their decision came following a report
by the Auditor General, which discovered that about $15m which was meant
for the Peace Recovery Development
Plan (PRDP) II had been embezzled.
According to the audit, the funds were

stolen by some officials in the Office of

the Prime Minister (OPM).
Due to the aid suspension by some
development partners to Uganda, the
government delayed to release money
for the fourth quarter to the local governments which the local leaders say has
negatively impacted on the delivery of
social services.
Districts such as Adjumani, Gulu,
Nakapiripirit among others had to halt
some planned projects for a while. This
means that many districts will not be
able to achieve their targets, which had
been aligned with the National Development Plan that runs up to 2014/2015.
Mr Gerald Owachi, an independent

consultant, says the aid cut was a double tragedy.

On top of the funds that have not
been sent to the districts, there is also a
risk that 30 per cent of the money supposed to be given to districts is going to
be diverted to the Consolidated Fund,
says Mr Owachi.
However, a local government official
in Alebtong District says even though
the district has had to suspend many
PRDP projects due to the delayed release of funds, he could not conclusively
say whether the delay was a result of the
aid cuts.
According to the Peace, Recovery and
Development Plan for Northern Uganda

(PRDP) Phase 2 Report, the potential

outputs from across the three PRDP
funding streams; PRDP Budget Grant,
Special projects and Off-budget funding, at least 6, 000 kilometers of roads
would be maintained or rehabilitated.
About 8,000 boreholes are expected
to be drilled which would provide 2.4
million people with clean water and
houses for at least 3, 000 teachers and 2,
000 health workers will be constructed.
The other outputs included the construction of at least 1, 300 classrooms,
328 rural markets and 148 outpatient
departments.
to page Ii

PRDP journal. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

advertorial
PRDP Journal
Empowering the less privileged
areas in Uganda

Daily Monitor

www.monitor.co.ug

Aid cut leaves many helpless

EDITORIAL

Why PRDP II is
useful at grassroots

t is one year since some of Ugandas development partners withheld more than $300 million
direct financial aid to Uganda.
Their action came against the backdrop of an
investigation by the Auditor General established
that $15 million they had given Uganda for the
Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP)
II, had been misappropriated by officials in the
Office of the Prime Minister.
PRDP II is meant to uplift 55 districts in West
Nile, Acholi, Lango, Teso and Karamoja sub-regions from the doldrums they were in during the
20-year Lords Resistance Army insurgency.
Through the $455 million purse PRDP II, local
governments in these regions are supported to
construct or
routinely rehaDevelopment partners
bilitate access
fund a fifth of Ugandas
roads, health
Budget. Because of the
units, primary
abruptness of the cut,
schools and acthe central government
commodation
has failed to make timely
for the health
releases of funds to the
and teaching
local governments. This
staff.
in turn means some
They are also
works that had been in
supposed to
progress had to stall.
put up water
points and pit
latrines, among
others.
Though some of the districts had during the
first phase of PRDP (2009-2011) managed to open
up access roads, construct lower level health units
and schools and some boreholes, much remained
to be done to make them functional.
For example, though there are more health
units and primary schools than before, a shortage of staff, which is partly a function of the lack of
accommodation at the duty stations, means these
sub-regions have a long way to before they could
be on a par with those that did not suffer during
the insurgency.
Development partners fund a fifth of Ugandas
Budget. Because of the abruptness of the cut,
the central government has failed to make timely
releases of funds to the local governments. This in
turn means some works that had been in progress
had to stall.
Where the funds are later released, they have
to be spent on the completion of projects started
on. That means no new projects can be taken on
since the stalled ones are many.Therefore, the aid
cut has impacted, negatively, on improving the
functionality of the structures so far established.
It is time the partners reciprocated by turning
on the aid tap so that the communities in the subregions above could qualitatively benefit from
PRDP II.
The PRDP Journal is a joint project between
the Development Network of Indigenous Voluntary Associations (DENIVA) and Monitor
Publications Ltd.
Director of Programs,
DENIVA
Akwango Anne Grace
Project Editor
Isaiah Kitimbo
Project Sub-Editor
Henry Mulindwa

Project Lead Writer

Nelson Wesonga
Project Manager
Dorah Nduhukire
Research and Advocacy
Coordinator, DENIVA
Otim Lucima.

Children wash their hands at a water spring in Namalu recently. PHOTO BY NELSON WESONGA

FROM page i

AFFECTED
AREAS
West Nile,
Acholi, Lango,
Teso, Gulu,
Arua and
Karamoja are
some of the
areas which
were affected
by the aid cut

The overall budget for PRDP II is

$455 million.
Mr Owachi says there is also a
risk of litigation because some
districts contracted private service
providers for different assignments
of which some of the contracts are
to be cancelled.
He says in case of breach of contracts with different service providers, districts will have to pay heavily.
According to a random survey
conducted by the Daily Monitor on
beneficiaries during the field visits,
it was found out that many targets
had not been achieved, which the

local leaders attributed to the delayed release of funds, which came

as a result of aid cut.
With just two years left to the
end of the second and perhaps
the final phase of the PRDP, there
are fears that the target districts in
West Nile, Acholi, Lango, Teso and
Karamoja, might not achieve many
of the development targets.
Some local governments, have,
thus, advised the development
partners to resume funding but this
time not dealing directly with the
central government but with the local authorities. However, the proposal is yet to be formally tabled
before the partners.
In the meantime, the donors

have urged the government to

prosecute all the accused people,
refund the stolen funds as well as
instituting a financial management
system to ensure that such scandals do not happen again.
Action
As a response to the donors,
Mr Geoffrey Kazinda, one of the
prime suspects in the OPM financial scandal has since been interdicted, prosecuted, convicted and
sentenced to a five-year jail term.
The government has also put in
place the financial management
system as well as refunding the
Shs38b that had been misappropriated.

Pakele Girls School needs Shs21m to

renovate dormitories for the blind
By NELSON WESONGA
nwesonga@ug.nationmedia.com

akele Girls Primary

School in Adjumani
needs Shs21m to rehabilitate two dormitories for
blind students.
Because of the dilapidated
state of the dormitories, at
the beginning of every term,
the school exports blind
pupils to Moyo Girls Primary
School.
It is expensive to fuel the
vehicle to transport the pupils to and from Moyo every
term. We also pay Shs33,000
for each pupils upkeep in

Moyo. If we had our own

dormitory, we would not incur such costs, says Mr Mark
Ambayo, the acting District
Education Officer of Adjumani.
Another district official attributed the failure to renovate the dorms to the central
governments delay to disburse the 2012/2013 fourth
quarters Peace, Recovery
and Development Plan funds
to the district. Other projects
that were affected include the
construction of houses and latrines for teachers in Magara.
The structures on ground
are not enough. The com-

The dilapidated dormitory for blind students in Pakele Girls

Primary School in Adjumani District which need renovation.
PHOTO BY NELSON WESONGA

munity has had to construct

some huts to accommodate

some teachers, says Mr Ambayo.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2013 PRDP journal. 3

advertorial

Daily Monitor

www.monitor.co.ug

Mothers hope for a

maternity ward fades

Ms Oroma Santa (left), a nursing assistant at the Koch Lii Health Centre II attends to Ms Cilbina Okello, an
expectant mother from Celpeke village in Koch Goma Sub-county, Nwoya District. The health centers plan of
expanding its maternity ward were put on hold following the donors decision of suspending aid to the prime
ministers office. PHOTO BY NELSON WESONGA

Suspension. The decision by the

development partners to suspend their
aid to Uganda affected the Koch Lii Health
Centre IIs plans of expanding its maternity
ward as well as recruiting more health
workers.
By NELSON WESONGA
nwesonga@ug.nationmedia.com

och Lii, a village in Nwoya

District accommodates
about 803 people. Of

these, 230 are women of childbearing age whereas 180 are

categorised as other women
and 43 as pre-mothers.
Koch Lii Health Centre II
which is located in Koch Goma
Sub-county, Nwoya District registers a big number of mothers
ready to give birth.
According to the centers
records, it handles about 49
deliveries monthly. However,
there are indications that this

number will increase.

There was a day when three
women who were in labour situation turned up at the same
time yet our maternity ward has
one room which can accommodate one mother at ago, says
Ms Santa Oroma, a nursing assistant at the health centre.
Ms Oroma says Koch Lii
Health Centre needs an expansion because, ideally, a woman
who has just delivered is sup-

posed to remain at the health

unit where she has delivered
from for the first 48 hours. But
since our maternity ward has
got one bed, we are forced to
discharge them in fewer than
48 hours to create room for
other expectant mothers.
Through the Peace, Recovery
and Development Plan (PRDP),
local authorities receive grants
from central government to
fund health, educational infrastructural projects, among
others.
For this year, Nwoyas PRDP
II portion was reduced from
Shs866m to Shs614m. Local
leaders attribute this to the donors decision of withholding
$372 million in financial aid due
to misappropriation of $15m in
the Office of the Prime Minister
meant for PRDP.
The decision came when
Koch Lii was planning to build
a maternity ward that could accommodate about 10 expectant mothers at ago.
It is estimated that the construction of one maternity ward
can cost Shs300m.However,
Nwoya local government has
Shs108m to invest in health in
the entire district. This means
the Koch Lii maternity ward
cannot be constructed.
Health workers needed
Koch Lii Health Centre
needs more health personnel
to attend to the patients. It is
estimated that a health centre
II should have nine health personnel but Koch Lii has only
two workers in the names of
Ms Oroma and Ms Ketty Ruth
Angwech.
The two available health
personnel are overwhelmed
with work. A patient may even
die as she waits to be attended
to, says Ms Cilbina Okello, an
expectant mother from Celpeke village.
The health personnels pre-

dicament is a bigger problem

that some of the 55 districts
implementing the PRDP are
facing in as far as the strategic
objective two is concerned.
The objective aims at ensuring the communities derive
benefit from the health, education and water infrastructure
in their areas. After the Lords
Resistance Army war, the government initiated the PRDP
programme in 2007 as one of
the initiatives to transform the
affected areas.
The programme had started
bearing fruits over the last three
years. However, its success was
halted by the decision of the
development partners to suspend aid.
According to the Nwoya District community development
officer, Geoffrey Akena, as a result of the aid cuts, the district
had to suspend some projects
from its to-do list.
Mr Patrick Oryema, the chairperson of Nwoya, advises the
development partners to unlock the financial aid taps and
should only send money to the
local governments.
If the development partners
are wary of the prime ministers
office, they should channel the
funds directly to the local governments, says Oryema.
Ms Lucy Mercy Ajok, a lab
technician at the Koch Goma
Health Centre III, says because
of unavailable accommodation
she shares a two-roomed structure with another colleague.

ALTERNATIVE
To kick-start some of the
suspended projects, the
local community proposes
that donors should revert
their decision of aid cut
and channel the funds
directly to the local government.

Aid cut hinders Nakapiripirit road projects

By NELSON WESONGA
nwesonga@ug.nationmedia.com

hile returning from a rally

in Nakapiripiriti in 2006,
President Musevenis vehicle got stuck in the mud in Nakaale, Kakomongole Sub-county.
More recently, Ms Janet Musevenis, the Minister for Karamoja, convoy also got stuck in the same area
while touring the area to promote
government programmes.
In both cases, graders were sent
for from the district headquarters
to clear the roads.
Due to the presidents incident,
the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) funded the
opening up of the KakomongoleNabilatuk Road, a shortcut to Moroto.
It funded the roads construction
on an understanding that the Nakapiripirit Local Government would
maintain the road annually which is

no longer in practice.
We are unlikely to live up to our
commitment which is bad for our
relationship with the UNDP, says
Mr Jobs Ilukol Lomenen, the acting
deputy chief administrative officer
of Nakapiripirit District.
Because of failing to justify the
commitment, Mr Lomenen says,
other development partners might
refuse to support the district programmes.
The district had plans to carry
out routine maintenance of the
Nabilatuk Nakaiyot, Nabilatuk
Lorengedwat and the Amuda Nakaiyot roads.
The budget for the maintenance
of the Nabilatuk-Lorengedwat road
was Shs120m, Shs280m for Amuda-Nakaiyot and Shs200m for the
Nabilatuk-Nakaiyot road.
Since the Amuda-Nakaiyot road
passes through a swampy area, it
would mean fitting more culverts to
drain the water so that the bridges

are not submerged.

Though the district has graders,
lorries to transport construction
materials, it is now experiencing
a shortfall of Shs600m that would
have helped meet some of the
costs for road works.
In 2012, the development partners halted financial aid to Uganda
because of the misappropriation
by the Office of the Prime Minister
of $15 million meant to improve the
livelihoods millions of people in 55
districts.
Part of the $15m was to be used
to open access roads in not just Nakapiripirit but even in other districts
such as Adjumani, Nwoya, Alebtong, among others, which would
ease the movement of people, and
goods.
Immediately after the aid cut,
we did not do any periodic maintenance on these roads. We are still
feeling the effects of the decision
and if the aid wasnt suspended, we

A man walks past Langarwoi

River Bridge in Nakapiripirit
District. The bridge is flooded
with water during rainy
seasons thus becoming
impassable.
PHOTO BY NELSON WESONGA

would have worked on these roads.

These roads will remain un-worked
on, says Mr Lomenen.
Ms Veronica Iriama, a farmer in
Lopuwa village, says if the roads
remain as they are, they would exacerbate Karamojas food woes.
For the first two days after a
downpour, the bridge over the

Longarwoi River becomes impassable as it is covered with water. So

we cannot move from our homes
in Lopuwa village to our gardens or
to harvest on the other side of the
bridge, says Ms Iriama.
He says during rainy days, even vehicles that carry emergence food
get stuck around the bridge.

4 PRDP journal. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

advertorial

Daily Monitor

www.monitor.co.ug

Why Nwoyas education

programmes are struggling

By NELSON WESONGA

Poor facilities. Nwoya

District remain one of
the worst performers
in the national
examinations due to
poor education facilities
in place.

nwesonga@ug.nationmedia.com

By NELSON WESONGA
nwesonga@ug.nationmedia.com

renda Tracy Awor, 16,

will be sitting for her Primary Leaving Examination in November of this year.
Tracy prays that she passes
with Division One such that
she can be admitted in one of
the best schools in Uganda.
However, a number of factors could detract Tracys
dream of getting a first grade
at Koch Lii Primary School in
Nwoya District where she is
schooling.
Mr Constantine Torach,
Koch Lii Primary School headmaster says the school has
only six teachers to attend to
564 pupils at the school.
He says as a result of having
fewer teachers, it is difficult to
monitor all the pupils.
He says the school should
have at least 15 teachers.
The local government had
promised to send six more
teachers to the school. Only
three showed up.
Poor accommodation
Mr Torach says the school
has poor accommodation for
the existing teachers which
contributes greatly to the pupils failure.
Nwoya District is one of the
55 districts in Uganda where
the Peace Development Recovery Plan (PRDP) II is being
implemented.
According to the PRDP IIOperational Guidelines, in order to ensure the lower level
service delivery centres are
functional, the local authori-

Residents tale
of piped water
dream shattered

Mr Dominic Akena, a teacher at Koch Lii Primary School, emerges from a hut in which he
stays. Poor accommodation is one of the serious problems which have affected teachers in
Nwoya District. PHOTO BY NELSON WESONGA

ties should equip the facilities

and construct staff houses in
such hard to reach areas.
Mr Torach says, Shelter
is one of the basic needs of
a man. Some teachers have
families. So it would be good
if they get decent accommodation.
Presently, Koch Lii Primary
School has one block, which
houses the headmaster and
the deputy head teacher.
Another block had been
started on. But its construction stopped at the slab
level.
Officials from Nwoya Local Government and those
from the Office of the Prime
Minister (OPM) have been to
the school and took pictures
of the slab, but they have
not told the community what

stalled the project, he says.

When the government delayed to release funds during
the fourth quarter to not only
Nwoya but even to other local
authorities, the districts could
not afford to pay contractors,
thus suspending some infrastructural projects.
This came following the
development partners aid cut
to Uganda after the Auditor
General found out that some
officials from the Office of the
Prime Minister has had misappropriated funds meant for
the Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) II.
It is estimated that Shs38b
could have financed the construction of 481 two-bedroom
staff houses in Acholi subregion.
The lack of good accom-

modation at school has seen

area teachers reside in wattle
and mud, grass-thatched
structures.
We love our job, says Mr
Dominic Akena, one of the
teachers. However, after several months, the downpour in
this area can penetrate even
the thickest of thatches. It denies one a good nights rest.
One could show up for classes
depressed, naturally.

OTHER ISSUES
Poor roads and salaries
are some of the problems which have greatly
affected the quality of
education in Nwoya
District.

project intended to
supply piped water
to 4,000 residents
of Namalu, one of Nakapiripirit Districts growing
centres has stalled, says a
district official.
Mr Jobs Lomenen, the
acting deputy chief administrative officer Nakapiripirit, says the delay by
the central government
to release funds for the
fourth quarter of 2012/13,
has put many projects on
hold including the piped
water project.
The project in Namalu
is one of the several
schemes that Nakapiripirit
local government had
embarked on as a first
step in ensuring that by
2014, all its trading centres have piped water.
The district had planned
to spend about Shs480m
on this and the Loregae
sub-counties pipe water
projects.
These projects had
to be deferred, says
Mr Lomenen. The district did not get the last
disbursement in the last
quarter of the last Financial Year. The water
project in Namalu has to
wait.
As districts that were
affected by the 20-year
Lords Resistance Army
insurgency were taking
their first steps to recover
socially and economically,
the development partners who were supporting their programmes
suspended their financial
aid due to corruption that
was found in the Office of
the Prime Minister.
For the funds from the
central government, they

are normally released late

when the Financial Year is
about to close.
According to guidelines from the Office of
the Prime Minister, a local
authority cannot embark
on new projects before
it completes those that it
had started on.
Since there are now
many stalled projects, the
local authorities face challenges of funding them.
The Namalus water
project, the drilling of a
borehole at St Kizito Senior Secondary School
in Lorengedwat, which
would cost Shs22m, have
all been put on hold.
Though the Ministry of
Water and Environment
policy on the operation
and maintenance policy
on boreholes says the local communities should
meet the costs, some
repairs are beyond the
means of many rural communities.
For instance, repair
works that cost upwards
of Shs250,000. In such a
case, the local government has to foot the
borehole repair costs.
However, because of a
narrow resource base, the
district is not able to fully
fund this and other water
activities. So the people
have to depend on the
wells, which are, however,
far from them while others are not good when it
comes to sanitation.
The other alternative
is for the district to approach development
partners to fund its unfunded priorities. That is
how the United Nations
Childrens Fund (Unicef)
footed the tab for providing pipe water in Moruita
sub-county.

Locals prefer receiving money from the districts

By NELSON WESONGA
nwesonga@ug.nationmedia.com

he 2012 decision by
Ugandas development
partners to withhold
more than $300m in financial
aid to Uganda has rekindled
the debate through which
channel should the partners
pass their funding.
Whereas some non-governmental organisations say
the funds would be safer with
them, local government leaders propose that the local
authorities would be a better
option.

In July, local government

leaders from the north and
the northeast urged the partners to unlock the financial
assistance they withheld due
to corruption in the Office of
the Prime Minister.
During a recent public dialogue organised by DENIVA,
a consortium of civil society
organisations, the local leaders said the freezing of more
than $300m in financial assistance has compromised the
districts ability to complete
infrastructural projects.
However, the partners were
advised to channel the funds

directly to the intended beneficiaries.

I wish the donors could
resume the funding, said
Mr John Lorot, the regional
chairperson of the Uganda
Local Governments Association. Should that happen, let
them send the funds directly
to the district local governments.
No longer trust OPM
He said they have lost faith
in the OPM after mismanaging the Peace, Recovery and
Development Plan money
meant to restore road,

health, education and water

infrastructure in 55 districts
that were affected by the 20year Lords Resistance Army
insurgency.
Just months after the development partners withheld
aid, the government failed to
make timely disbursement of
funds to the various local authorities.
That has raised fears that
the districts might not be
able to complete the procurement processes in time.
So they could end up returning some of the money to the
Consolidated Fund.

Children fetch water Namalu from an incomplete

Namalu piped water source. PHOTO BY NELSON WESONGA