AIP secrecy irks committee

The Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and Irrigation has accused the Ministry of Agriculture of letting down the nation on food security by keeping under wraps implementation status of this year’s Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP).

In an interview yesterday after the ministry’s representatives failed to attend meetings aimed at discussing food security and this year’s AIP, committee chairperson Sameer Suleman said it is depressing that there is secrecy around the subsidy initiative.

He said Malawians  by now needed to know how much AIP fertiliser has been procured with the allocated K109 billion and who the beneficiaries are.

Said Suleman: “What we know is that K30 billion has gone missing. What we also know is that the country does not have a single bag of fertiliser yet.

“And when we question, unfortunately, the ministry has decided not to give any answers. So, we are left to speculate and believe the rumours that are coming out.”

He called on the ministry to come in the open and state the progress on the programme.

Suleman also faulted the ministry for suspending State-produce trader Agriculture Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) operations, saying the parastatal was formed by an Act of Parliament and such a decision should have gone through Parliament.

Ministry of Agriculture spokesperson Gracian Lungu said the ministry will not comment on the matter for now.

Minister of Agriculture Lobin Lowe could not be reached on his phone for comment.

In a separate interview, Minister of Information and Digitisation Gospel Kazako, the official government spokesperson, said he needed to consult Lowe for information on the programme.

Government allocated K109 billion for implementation of this year’s AIP. The amount was a reduction  from K142 billion allocated last year targetting 3.7 million beneficiaries.