World Bank withholds funds for reconstructing northern Uganda

The World Bank has withheld over 147 billion Ugandan shillings (81 million US dollars) for the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF) projects, according to a report from Sunday Vision.

NUSAF acting executive director Christopher Laker was quoted by the state-owned weekly as saying that the funds for reconstructing war-torn northern Uganda and other districts under NUSAF were being withheld due to unaccountability.

"Bribery and manipulation of communities by politicians are among the things threatening the successful implementation of the UNSAF projects," the report said.

According to the report, since the project begun in February 2003, it has received about 50 billion shillings (27.6 million dollars). The World Bank contributed about 46 billion shillings ( 25.4 million dollars) while the Ugandan government offered about 4 billion shillings (2.2 million dollars).

"About 18 billion shillings (9.9 million dollars) of the 36 billion shillings (19.9 million dollars), supposedly disbursed to communities, has not been accounted for," the report disclosed.

"There is a high level of conspiracy. Some forms are approved in one day without the alleged community meeting. But minutes to these meetings are forged for formality. Names of people have been used without their knowledge while others are of people who don't exist. The most affected are illiterate women," Tony Kitara, a local official, was quoted as saying.

"There is a fish farming project which allegedly has 35 members, 25 of whom don't exist. The other six did not even know that they were members of the project," the official added.

Source: Xinhua