The Youth Member of parliament for central region Sarah Babirye Kityo welcomes a proposal to transfer the Youth Livelihood Fund to State House following abuse of funds.
Reports indicate that the Youth Fund will be transferred from the ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development.
The news follow queries raised by the Auditor General John Muwanga in the reports of 2015/16 and 2016/17, of existence of ghost beneficiaries under the Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP) – noting that about Shs527 million of the fund money is non-traceable.
The money was allegedly spent on ghost groups in 30 districts randomly sampled during the audit period.
The central region Sarah Babirye Kityo says Community Development officers have been complicit in defrauding the fund.
The Youth Livelihood Program is rolling fund project that targets poor youth across the country.
A total of Shs 231.2 billion was budgeted for the project in financial year 2013/2014 to financial year 2017/2018.
Due to (mis) management, out that out of the Shs 38.8 billion that was disbursed to 5,505 youth groups in the financial year 2013/2014 and 2014/2015, on average, only 26.7 percent was recovered from the youth countrywide.
We have reached out to YLP representatives, so far no word back.
