3122 Admarc jobs at stake

Barely one week after Minister of Agriculture Lobin Lowe shut down Admarc to pave the way for restructuring, the paratstatal’s board has said 3 122 jobs are at risk as part of the process.

During a meeting with the Parliamentary Committee on Trade, Industry and Tourism at Parliament Building in Lilongwe yesterday, Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) board chairperson Alexander Kusamba Dzonzi said the number of employees will be reduced from 4 687 to 1565, representing 67 percent cut.

He said the financially struggling State produce trader has “too many employees” on its payroll who were not adding value but only burdening taxpayers.

Said Dzonzi: “Taxpayers are paying employees who are not able to make money and look after maize at Admarc.”

He also said some of the employees do not have the right qualifications for them to be at Admarc while others do not have the skills. He said some are old and need to be sent into retirement.

However, Dzonzi said Admarc will conduct interviews to employ people and that those within Admarc will have to compete external candidates.

“They will have to compete. Our role is to make sure we have employees who can serve Malawians. People with good experience, right qualifications,” he said.

Dzonzi said the exercise was initially planned for three months, but the board will expedite the process.

Committee chairperson Simplex Chithyola Banda said Admarc should follow labour laws in dealing with the matter of employees.

However, he said Admarc needs to have the right people with right qualifications and skills for it to improve and serve Malawians better.

“For those that will not be called, Admarc should do the needful to ensure that all labour issues are addressed and that those that are affected are helped accordingly,” said Banda

Last week, Lowe sent the entire Admarc staff on paid leave as part of an exercise to redefine its functions to serve Malawians better.

He said in a statement that the move was also compelled by the continued poor performance of the struggling parastatal which has led shareholders to further suspend all its services except social services until further notice.

Said Lowe: “For over two years we have been in government, we have been analysing best ways of restructuring this institution and my ministry together with other shareholders has concluded that Admarc’s failure to tick and bring the desired results is attributed to numerous factors.”

Admarc was created in 1971 as a statutory corporation mandated to, among others, market agricultural produce and inputs, facilitate the development of the smallholder agricultural subsector and also attend to social obligations on behalf of government.

During yesterday’s meeting, Dzonzi told the committee that some employees went into dubious deals with commercial traders, leading to the dwindling of 169 000 metric tonnes (MT) to 132 000MT of maize stocks.

He also said Admarc needs about K400 billion for a turnaround which will see it set up factories for value addition, among others.

The institution currently owes commercial banks about K60 billion.

Until 1987, Admarc was the sole buyer of smallholder produce, but in 2004, it was incorporated as a limited liability company with government owning 99 percent of the shares.

A Poverty and Social Impact Analysis on Admarc conducted by former Secretary to the Treasury Milton Kutengule alongside Antonio Nucifora and Hassan Zaman indicated that the parastatal’s social functions ceased in early 2000s.

The cessation followed the establishment of National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) and the Department of Poverty and Disaster Management Affairs, now Department of Disaster Management Affairs.

In line with the changes, Admarc’s storage capacity, which used to reach 468 000MT, was reduced to 200 000MT with the transfer of storage facilities to NFRA.

Before the reforms, Admarc operated up to 1 300 seasonal markets, 217 unit markets, 80 area offices, 12 district headquarters, three regional offices and 18 storage depots. Half of these were closed and, as of 2020, Admarc now operates 700 seasonal markets nationwide.n