By Mike Rwothomio
ZOMBO
Zombo District leadership has formally appealed to the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance to resolve critical technical failures affecting approximately 50 percent of Parish Development Model (PDM) tablets.
The disruptions are constraining operational efficiency across half of the district’s 61 parishes.
According to the Zombo District Production Department, 31 of the 61 issued tablets are currently inoperative.
These devices support core digital processes managed by parish chiefs and SACCO executives, including real-time data capture, fund disbursement tracking, biometric verification, and integration with platforms such as the Wendi digital wallet.
The outages have compelled a reversion to manual workflows, creating bottlenecks in data collection, accountability mechanisms, and transparent reporting.
The issue was highlighted during a recent multi-stakeholder engagement convened at the district headquarters by area Members of Parliament, Woman MP Topista Acamfua, Ora County MP Grace Freedom Kwiocwiny, and Okoro County MP Gabriel Okumu.
Participants included district officials, parish chiefs, community development officers, town clerks, sub-county chiefs, and community representatives.
Dr. Walter Kumakech, District Production Officer and PDM focal point person, presented the status report, underscoring that the tablet failures are significantly impeding the poverty-alleviation programme’s progress.
He requested parliamentary escalation to the relevant authorities, stating: “The ICT gadgets that have been given to support the digitization of PDM, most of them have fallen or damaged; we request you our MPs to take this concern to the relevant authorities.”
Dr. Kumakech further noted that the Production Department is constrained by Ministry of ICT directives prohibiting local repairs, placing full responsibility for remediation with the central ministry.
Since 2022, Zombo District has received UGX 24.8 billion under the PDM, of which UGX 21.6 billion has been disbursed to 22,263 beneficiaries, representing 51 percent coverage.
Outstanding Parish Revolving Fund (PRF) recovery stands at approximately UGX 12.6 billion, against which only UGX 13 million (0.1 percent) has been collected to date.
While the PDM framework seeks to transition roughly 39 percent of Ugandan households from subsistence to the monetary economy through targeted financial inclusion, implementation in Zombo continues to face additional headwinds from reported mismanagement allegations involving certain SACCO executive committees.
Resident District Commissioner Festus Ayikobua emphasized the value of such forums for channeling grassroots concerns to national decision-makers.
Okoro County MP Gabriel Okumu committed to elevating the technical challenges, observing that multiple factors continue to constrain PDM performance in the district.
Woman MP Topista Acamfua reaffirmed collaborative engagement to convey local issues to the centre, while Ora County MP Grace Freedom Kwiocwiny highlighted parliamentary oversight and monitoring responsibilities aimed at improving household livelihoods.
Zombo currently hosts 1,261 enterprise groups, predominantly concentrated in crop and livestock value chains across the majority of parishes, including significant clusters in piggery (279 groups), horticulture (116), coffee (80), and poultry (58).
The local challenges mirror findings in the Auditor General’s recent nationwide assessment of PDM digital infrastructure. Of 13,253 tablets distributed to 93 local governments, 178 were non-functional, 29 were allocated to ineligible personnel, seven were unaccounted for, and more than 4,200 intended users across 33 local governments had not received requisite training, limiting effectiveness in data management, loan processing, and performance monitoring.
The Auditor General has recommended accelerated fund releases, strengthened supervision, improved PRF recovery preparedness, enhanced loan tracking within the PDM Information System, and timely initiation of repayments.
