Households counting on the government Covid-19 relief cash will have to wait for at least another week to allow for the verification of their data.
The government announced proposals to disburse Shs 100,000 to at least 520,000 people in 41 municipalities and 10 cities to help them go through the 42-day lockdown announced to stop the spread of the second wave of Covid-19.
Government earmarked Shs 53 billion for this exercise. On Monday, the Prime Minister, Robinah Nabbanja said they would start the disbursement tomorrow Thursday.
However, the government says that the lists of the beneficiaries are not ready. Statistics from the ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development show that only 60,000 names of the beneficiaries from various municipalities and cities had been submitted by 1:00 pm on Wednesday.
A team of officials from the ministry led the Labour Employment and Industrial relations state minister; Charles Engola disclosed this while appearing before the Covid-19 task force for parliament today Wednesday.
Emmanuel Yeka, the ICT officer from Gender ministry said that they are aggregating the data submitted by town clerks based on location, sex, nature of work and match the telephone numbers and national ID numbers.
When asked by the committee on the register or list that will be used to disburse the funds, Engola said that they are currently processing the data before they compile it in a week's time and display the lists for verification before they start paying out the money.
"We shall display all this data in a week's time for now...In order to be transparent, we have to display the data before payment...We have to be sure who we're going to pay," Engola said.
The committee chair Abdu Katuntu tasked the ministry to submit a written report with an updated status of the names they have received so far and if they have been displayed so that members of Parliament can verify from the ground.
During the meeting, MPs raised concerns in regards to the integrity of the list and how it was generated. They also questioned why the town councils were left out of the Covid-19 relief package since they fall under urban centers. However Gender minister Betty Amongi later contracted her junior minister and said disbursement to 50,000 beneficiaries will start tomorrow.
Amongi said so far a list containing more than 100,000 beneficiaries has been submitted to the ministry. According to Amongi, Engola's submissions were premised on the fact that the list of beneficiaries ought to be verified which has already been done for the 50,000 beneficiaries.
The MPs were also concerned that the Shs 4 million allocated to each of the 40 administrators in the municipalities and cities is huge, yet the other beneficiaries will only receive Shs 100,000.
Lillian Aber, the Kitgum Woman MP asked government to negotiate with telecoms to waive the withdrawal charges so that the beneficiaries receive the entire sum of Shs 100,000. Post Bank, the bank responsible for disbursing the cash, said withdrawal and bank charges amounting to Shs 2400 per person have been paid by government and so the beneficiaries will get the full Shs 100,000.
"We have a national single registry, why not use it? I am worried about the ghost registration because of the manual way you are collecting data. Can we also negotiate on the withdrawal charges and talk to telecoms not to deduct their loans from vulnerable Ugandans who borrowed?" Aber said.
Army representative, Victoria Nekesa asked the ministry of Gender why no relief aid was given to sex workers.
"Could you consider Shanita Namuyimba's group because last time and now they rely on daily income but now that they call out for help because they survive on daily income and now that they can't be given chance to go on streets freely. I request the ministry to consider the Bad Black group."
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