The Permanent Secretary (PS) for the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance (MOICT&NG), Dr. Aminah Zawedde, has today, May 17, 2023, addressed the New Parish Development Model (PDM) Information Management Systems and Financial Management System purposed to improve accountability, governance, citizen participation, and administration of PDM funds.

While addressing the press at MOICT&NG, the PS said that the Ministry has been working on automation of processes across the PDM model in liaison with different Ministries, Departments and Agencies to implement Pillar 6.

“The objective of automation of processes across the PDM model is to ensure that we improve accountability of government funds, transparency, efficiency, and effectiveness in service delivery through this process,” Dr. Zawedde said.

She added that the process will enable government to have evidence-based planning and management of government resources. The system is hinged on supporting communities to improve their livelihoods through this model.

Dr. Zawedde said that the system is integrated to feed into other systems. The system will register every household and profile the communities to know the people there, what they do, and the infrastructure in terms of the various resources that they have in the community to better categorize, identify, and know those that are eligible for the PDM funds.

She said that they are documenting this information, storing it, and going to be able to disseminate it at various levels of decision-making in the country.

The system covers different components, including registration that helps in data collection, financial inclusion, or financial information system, which is supposed to manage the parish revolving fund, which is the fund that is going to be given out to the different SACCOs that have been registered in the various parishes, according to Zawedde.

She added that the benefit of all this is to ensure that there is minimal borrowing so that the funds reach the intended beneficiaries.

Dr. Zawedde emphasized that monitoring and evaluation are intended to support the improvement of governance and administration, and to measure the performance of the fund as well as how well the government is doing in terms of data collection.

She said that so far, over 52% of the 9 million intended households have been registered, and in terms of the total population, over 18.2 million people have been registered.

She said that the process is still ongoing, though it is highly dependent on the availability of funds.

The PS urged the government offices to continue supporting and cooperating with the Ministry to ensure the success of this exercise.

Citizen participation is the other component that is aimed at ensuring that there is an interface with the citizens. The system has a portal that will be able to provide real-time information and feedback for the citizens.

The Ministry today, May 17, 2023, flagged off 181 trainers on the financial inclusion system who will be attached to all local officers across the country. Effective May 22, 2023, they will equip local government leaders to ensure that they are able to use the system to collect information as required.

The system will work both offline and online, and the application can work on mobile phones and computers.