Jb spends K25.4bn behind Parliament
President Joyce Banda’s Presidential Initiative operating within the Office of the President and Cabinet has used about K25.4 billion purchasing fertiliser meant for her Farm Input Loan Program (Filp) behind Parliament’s back, Weekend Nation has established.
President Banda first announced the loan programme – later christened as parallel Fisp – in April in Ntcheu ostensibly meant to help poor farming families who cannot be included on Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) beneficiary list.
But confirmed information now tells us that the loans are not meant for the poor per se, but people “who have other sources of income.”
The K25 389 000 000 (US$68 618 918) which OPC has confirmed as the cost for the purchase of some 75 000 metric tonnes of fertiliser is nowhere in the 2013/14 national budget, making the transaction illegal. Only Parliament has the power to approve expenditures in the budget
OPC spokesperson Arthur Chipenda confirmed the cost in an interview this week saying: “The cost that can be stated at the moment is the cost of purchasing fertilisers, which is 63 million US dollars for 75 000 metric tonnes of fertilisers but there are also other operational costs that are being finalised. These can be made available in due course.”
Chipenda also confirmed that although the procurement has taken place during the current fiscal year, the expenditure will be included in the 2014/15 budget for the Ministry of Agriculture, thus Parliament will be consulted after government has already spent.
“This is a future payment, which will be in the 2014/2015 budget. The suppliers of the fertilisers have agreed to supply the fertilisers now but the payment will be made after July 1, 2014. This will be in the Ministry of Agriculture vote,” said Chipenda.
The Office of the Director of Public Procurement (ODPP) nodded to the transaction after OPC involved it.
ODPP spokesperson Mary Mbekeani confirmed this in a questionnaire response, saying “in order to ensure that the inputs were available before the onset of the forthcoming agricultural season, OPC requested that they fast-track the procurement of these inputs. Against this background, but so as to ensure some competition through which the Government could realise value for money, this Office granted permission to OPC to use restricted tendering as the method through which the procurement could be undertaken.”
She said OPC invited seven shortlisted bidders and they included Sealand Investment, Lyambai DMCC, Afri Ventures FZE, Export Trading Company, Midima Produce Ltd, Compestre International Ltd and Bosveld Phosphate Pty Ltd.
But the Civil Society Agriculture Network (Cisanet) executive director Tamani Nkhono said in an interview this week spending public funds without Parliament is breaking the laws of the country.
“This project was never there in the 2013/2014 budget; in other words, the money being spent on this project are being spent illegally as it is using resources from the national budget through the back door,” said Nkhono.
He added: “While we applaud the idea of having a loan scheme for inputs that will probably eventually going to reduce the amount of money spent on Fisp, we are very worried about the secrecy and lack of transparency in the whole process.”
The secrecy has also worried chairperson for Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture David Luka, who confirmed that even his committee has never been consulted at any time “in spite of us querying this at some point”.
“This is not a bad idea but the way it is being implemented is suspicious. One would have expected that Parliament should have passed the budget for this programme or at least just the committee knowing,” he said.
According to Luka, what is happening “is an anomaly and should be questioned.”
“It’s not supposed to be like that. We already questioned that but we still don’t know how this came about and how it is being implemented,” he added.
Malawi Rural Development Fund (Mardef) has been mandated to implement the programme and is currently registering beneficiaries.
A visit to the area of Group Village Head Muzu in Lilongwe also revealed that even the supposed beneficiaries are as confused “because we are getting conflicting information”.
Madalitso Kuntenga, a single mother of three in the area, has been left out on the FISP beneficiary list and when she was told she stands a chance to benefit from the loan, she had a sigh of relief.
And according to Lyson Mvura, chairperson of the Village Development Committee (VDC), farmers from 24 villages under the group village head formed 21 clubs on advice of Mardef.
“To this day, we have only received two application forms which mean that 19 clubs have been left out and they don’t know what to do,” said Mvura.
While Kuntenga and other villagers across the country wait for the time to receive four bags of fertiliser on loan, they will probably be shocked.
The Mardef spokesperson Isaac Mbekeani confirmed in an emailed interview that not only will beneficiaries get two and not four bags of fertiliser, but that clients must have other sources of income apart from farming.
In an emailed interview, Mbekeani refused to discuss the financing of the project while confirming that government has already procured 75 000 tonnes of fertiliser meant for distribution to what President Banda called “poor farmers.”
“We are targeting 750 000 clients [in other words of 75,000 clubs with an average of 10 members per club. There are 75 000 metric tonnes [1 500 000 bags]. This fertiliser has been procured by government,” he said.
The donor community has distanced itself from the programme.
Norwegian Ambassador Asbjorn Eidhammer and World Bank spokesperson Zeria Banda said their institutions are not involved.
There’s more than what the naked eye can see, this is just the tip of the iceberg. People have said it before that this President has always handled official responsibilities like that of a personal estate. Nowhere in the world will a head of state take it upon themselves to decide how government resources will be utilized unilaterally with all disregard to the tenets that safeguard the running and maintenance of state affairs but MALAWI. This President is more than fit to be fired through an impeachment because she has totally betrayed, cheated, lied, crucified, and dishonored the Malawi populace. She has all along taken Malawians as clowns, that the taxi payer’s money belongs to her (the famous Joyce Banda Foundation). She has the clout and audacity to ferry her party cohorts all the way to the USA only to parade them in front of the civilized people in that country for no sane reasons. The Presidency responsibilities was too huge for this uneducated woman who apparently goes about fooling herself by painting a laughable CV which is baseless and sends it abroad to garner cheap fame. No wonder she made arrangements with Reuben Ngwenya to go to South Korea only to be given a doctorate degree/gown without gracing the corridors of a learning institution. When you get out of office next year I have already arranged with tutors at Mpemba to panel beat your mucus brain with basic management skills, possibly PP will then function like a political party.
Kuba kumayamba chonchi. Zinthu zabwino koma mayendesedwe oipa ndi olimbikitsa umbava. Nkhani iyi ikambidwe ku Parliament. Dongosolo likufunika. Nanga wina akayika 10 million kwacha pamwamba pa ndalamazi mwakabisibisi muzidzammanga pomwe mukuyambisa nokha osasatira dongosolo.
I agree with Ada kuba kuyamba conci pakuyenela dongosolo
Isn’t this similar to what put Sam Mpasu in troubles and was jailed because of using short cutsn in the famous Field yort scandal? Amayi take care. We love you and your contribution to Malawi
If this correct report, then I am really sad. Can we really do that as good loving Malawians? When the 2013-2014 budget was presented, a lot of people objected to the increase of FISP budget to 60 billion when an important vote, health was scaled down. A day does not pass when you don’t hear a very sad report from our hospitals and yet we think FISP deserves more when it is not even delivering. If FISP in its current form was delivering, would we have hunger now?
Now to add salt to injury why would an additional 25.4 billion being spent on the same and behind the august house when people are literally dieing in our hospitals? Do we have a heart in us? Are votes more important than people’ s lives? Why would one person impose a cost on one ministry for a commodity that would benefit one person? This parallel subsidy will be done in the name of one person and I know they will have personal branding. But is that even legal or morally correct to do that? Where is our consciousness as Malawians when we are doing such evil things? Is this what we wanted when we were voting for multiparty politics?
I hope that parliament will take up this issue and that fertilizer should be sold and the money should be put to important votes. Can this be money realized from the sale of the jet? I don’t know why no one seems to be recognizing the health disaster that we have on our hands right now. Malawians, let us act to get her to bring sanity to our rotten system. Malawi needs Devine intervention. Please almighty. God, hear the voice of the young ones, sick on their beds with no medicine, no hope. Tears flowing form the mothers, wanting to help but nothing to give, doctors banging their heads on the wall because they could something but they can’t. They have literally no one to care for them here in this country , Lord. Be their hope and the hope for this hopeless and moralless country.
Chimayi chimenechi ndi cha satanic, only munthu wankhaza angamaseweretse ndalama zaboma chonchi muchipata mulibe mankwala. Chidzipita kwao ku mozambique.
If Sam Mpasu wad tried and convicted for abusing power in field york escandal then I see a similar case here. This woman is to benefit something from this scam for sure, this loan should not be approved at all. She said she had resources for this programme on one of her rallies. I didn’t hear her mentioning of using govt funds, this even raised susciptions that if she is able to run a parallel subsidy programme then she is a billionaire. Now you are saying she will use the govt money?
This is the mother source of corrupt practices (fertiliser gate scandal). If this flops and the parliament decides to deny this allocation to the Ministry, how will the money owed be paid to the suppliers? I think we should not abuse the powers bestowed to us by Malawians like this, taking us to be God fearing kuti sotichita act.