The Parish Development Model Has a Records Problem, Not Only a Money Problem
Households can name the amount. Fewer can name who approved the list, and that is where the audits keep landing.
By Julius Byaruhanga..Western and Central Uganda.6 min read
Western and Central Uganda. 6 July 2026.
AccountabilityGovernance
Ask a parish about the enterprise fund and the answer arrives in figures. Ask who sat on the selection committee and the answer slows down.
Selection is the fault line
Where beneficiary lists were read aloud at a public meeting, disputes are rare. Where they were compiled privately, the same complaints recur: relatives of committee members, absent names, and recipients who never attended a single session.
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The money can be correct and the list can still be wrong. People remember the list.
Sub-county chief, western Uganda
Repayment rates track the same divide, which suggests that transparency at selection is not a compliance nicety but the mechanism that makes the fund revolve at all.
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Why the audit findings keep repeating the same pattern
Reports from the Office of the Auditor General on Parish Development Model disbursements have flagged beneficiary selection irregularities in successive review cycles, a repetition that governance analysts say points to a structural weakness in how lists are compiled rather than to isolated incidents of misconduct at particular parishes.
The Ministry of Local Government has issued guidance calling for beneficiary lists to be read and confirmed at public parish meetings before disbursement, but the work of that guidance is inconsistent. Sub-county officials say enforcement depends heavily on whether a parish chief chooses to hold the meeting as prescribed.
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Guidance from the ministry is one thing. Whether the parish chief actually calls the meeting is another thing entirely, and that gap is where the complaints start.
Local council official, western Uganda
Repayment performance data reviewed by district commercial officers shows a consistent correlation between transparent selection and higher repayment, which officials cite as evidence that public accountability at the selection stage is not simply a governance nicety but a functional requirement for the fund to revolve as designed.
What district monitoring teams say they are watching for in the next disbursement cycle is whether more sub-counties adopt the public reading practice voluntarily. This is becauseit has so far spread unevenly rather than through any binding requirement.
Evidence & documents
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