Ibam urges transparency in Fisp

Indigenous Businesses Association of Malawi (Ibam) president Mike Mlombwa says there is need for transparency in the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) because some companies form cartels to get business at the expense of others.

For the first time in eight years, Fisp will this year be supervised by the Smallholder Farmers Fertiliser Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM).

The company also did the same job in 2005-06 agriculture season and since then, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development has been supervising Fisp.

Said Mlombwa: “We know that some companies form cartels and present many bids so that they get more business and this puts indigenous businesses at a huge disadvantage.

“We know that there are some Malawians who are also participating in the Fisp business and their interests must also be protected.”

He said government must always come in to protect its citizens because local businesses can only grow if business is conducted in a transparent manner.

“We know that some people are greedy and government must always make sure that Malawians are protected.

“We are ready to work with the Ministry of Agriculture, Office of the Director of Public Procurement (Odpp) as well as Ministry of Industry and Trade to make sure that Malawian businesses are protected,” said Mlombwa.

SFFRFM chief executive officer Andrew Kalinde said they know that local suppliers have the capacity and that all efforts will be undertaken to make sure that the process is transparent.

“We know that some business people always take advantage of any situation to make more money but we will follow all measures that are spelt out in the Public Procurement Act to make the whole process transparent and professional,” he said.

Kalinde said that once the successful bidders have been identified, all companies that participated in the tendering process will be publicised in the press.

He said 241 companies collected bids but only 132 presented them to SFFRFM.

Fisp, which mostly accounts for a huge chunk of the agriculture budget, is a programme in which over one million Malawians buy a 50 kilogramme bag of fertiliser at a subsidised price of K500.