KAMPALA – In a move to help vulnerable people amid lockdown of the second wave of coronavirus, the government resolved to send Shs100,000 to each of them.
PostBank Uganda was appointed to disburse the funds to the selected Ugandans impacted by the pandemic and the ongoing lockdown.
However, the Minister of ICT and National Guidance Dr. Chris Baryomunsi revealed that 6000 people got double that money by mistake.
“Yes, there was a human error in the bank where I think there was double-clicking and people up to around 6000 who are using airtel got the double payment,” Baryomunsi.
He claimed that there was immediate detection and the bank recovered the money.
“It was detected as soon as happened and the extra money recovered. It is like when you are sending someone mobile money, you think the money has not gone and you send again,” he added.
Speaking on the case, the bank said that the matter is being resolved with Airtel, saying that all the intended beneficiaries will be paid as per the future instructions.
“Of the beneficiary payments made so far, 6,011 were paid twice. This was a single incident relating to a batch upload file which the bank quickly identified and immediately flagged to Airtel. The duplication had nothing to do with the data from the Ministry,” the bank said in a statement.
“The bank is only waiting for the list of the pending beneficiaries to complete this exercise.”
“To date more than 60% has been recovered and the outstanding amount is UGX 242,195,575 (0.56% of total payments).”
The bank says they submit daily returns to the Ministry of Gender and the Office of the Prime Minister which include the beneficiaries who have been paid as per the instructions.
“To date, the bank has paid 415,574 beneficiaries spread across the country out of the target 501,107 households, amounting to UGX 42,565,166,950.”
