Fisp beneficiaries to be published
Govt agrees to donor demands
Five donors supporting the K60 billion Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) have pressed government to disseminate a list of all 1.5 million beneficiaries for everyone to verify, Nation on Sunday has learnt.
This is among a number of security measures to curb corruption that has for long manifested itself through ghost villages since the programme started in 2006.
United Kingdom’s (UK) Department for International Development (DfID) head in Malawi Sarah Sanyahumbi said in an e-mailed response that government has agreed to this measure and others.
“As part of strengthening transparency, we have also agreed with government to publish beneficiary lists at Extension Planning Area (EPA) level. Development partners and government of Malawi also agreed measures to strengthen and improve transparency in the fertiliser procurement process,” she said.
Sanyahumbi said donors are “confident that if these agreed processes or activities are properly implemented, it will strengthen the programme to effectively deliver affordable fertiliser and quality seeds to the most deserving poor households in Malawi.”
Fisp donors include UK, Norway, Ireland, the European Union and the World Bank.
Additionally, the five will for the 2013/14 Fisp procure on behalf of the Malawi government and secure coupons with water marks to reduce use of counterfeit coupons.
Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) spokesperson Sarah Tione acknowledged these efforts to ensure that Fisp benefits the intended poor households.
“We started last year and this year we are planning to tighten the security of the coupons even more,” she said.
In addition to funding the purchase of quality seeds, the donors also fund other activities aimed at strengthening accountability and transparency to ensure Fisp’s value for money.
Among others, the donors will fund printing of posters to be distributed in all Fisp markets providing information on input prices and also Toll Free numbers for the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and police.
They are also funding independent external evaluations and monitoring implementation by Farmers Union of Malawi (FUM) to provide useful lessons to help government further strengthen the programme and fund Malawi Police and the ACB monitoring activities in Fisp, according to Sanyahumbi.
Meanwhile, deputy Malawi Police Service (MPS) publicist Kelvin Maigwa said police will strengthen their involvement in Fisp “to limit the malpractices associated with implementation of the programme.”
“We started with a review of how the previous seasons faired. We looked at the weaknesses in the system and devised ways of ensuring that all the holes are sealed,” he said.
The MPS, said Maigwa, hope to consolidate community policing structures, provide guard duties where necessary, continue intelligence gathering and mounting of ad hoc roadblocks apart from conducting regular interface meetings with stakeholders.
Currently, Ministry of Agriculture is finalising a review of over 100 bidders who applied to supply the 150 000 metric tonnes of NPK and UREA fertilisers for the 2013/14 Fisp.
Last year, 29 suppliers were awarded fertiliser contracts, while 43 transporters won bids to move the commodities to various selling points across Malawi, according to Tione.
How would you curb curruption if the man that was behind the ‘coupon corruption scandal’ is now the principal secretary?
The issue herein raised is not at all that effective, publishing names in Malawi is nothing but attaching that name to a deserving-poor individual is what matters. The presence of National Identity Cards would have been helpful because those names would have been attached to relevant serial numbers of the ID and hence ensuring that the beneficiaries are indeed from that Village. We have a Culture in Malawi knows as “Silent Culture”, the Village Head will provide his name and the name will be published but in the end that Village Head Man will still access the fertilizer because will stand up to say this is the chiefs” name. What we need first is the effective existence of the National Registration and Identification System before all these good mechanisms of monitoring, toll free lines, Awareness etc. Let us do the simple mathematics of how much money will go into identification of Farming Famililes, Data Entry, Contractors, the ACB, the Malawi Police, the Farmers Union, the Various Monitoring Elements, the Printing Costs of Coupons, the distribution cost of Coupons- this adds up to more than 61 billion Kwacha!!! Otherwise, the monies from all you five good donors would have helped if you had just subsidized the cost of Fertilizer to suppliers so that every Malawian regardless of poverty level should buy this bag at K1,500.00 but I appreciate for your donor support.