Uganda Government Covid-19 Relief Money; 6,000 People Mistakenly Received Double Payment, Minister Chris Baryomunsi has Confirmed.

At least 6,000 people mistakenly received double payment of the Covid-19 relief cash, the government has revealed.

The government was meant to send Shs100,000 to each individual who qualified as vulnerable for the covid-19 relief fund, however, the Minister of ICT and National Guidance Dr. Chris Baryomunsi has revealed that 6000 people got double that money by mistake.

According to information provided to Nile Post, the beneficiaries of the double payment are subscribed to Airtel Mobile Network.

“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.

Nile Post got in contact with one of the beneficiaries of the double payment and can confirm that he withdrew all the money as sent by the government hence no recovery.

The specific source indicated that once they got the money, they rushed to make a withdraw but were followed later by efforts from the telecom to initiate a reversal of half of the money (Shs100,000).

When the telecom could not achieve this target, they started a forceful deduction but only found Shs350 on the source’s account.

The Ministry of Gender, Labor, and Social Development distanced themselves from the anomaly, indicating that it lies entirely with the bank and not the registers.

“The Ministry has double-checked its records with Post Bank and found that no such error was attributed to the lists submitted to the bank,” a statement from the bank reads in part.

“Once beneficiary data is conveyed online to the bank, the responsibility that each of the beneficiaries receives the entitled Shs100,000 rests entirely with the bank and will be resolved without any loss of public funds,” the statement continues.