Police bust ‘AIP theft syndicate’
Police have busted a syndicate of officials from Smallholder Farmers Fertiliser Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) who allegedly connived with businesspersons to steal fertiliser under the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) by repackaging it.
National Police spokesperson Peter Kalaya said yesterday that three people have been arrested for theft of 4 500 bags of fertiliser. He identified the trio as SFFRFM sales clerk Don Khomo and businesspersons Cosmas Nyimbo and Violet Lito.
He said the three allegedly redeemed the inputs using beneficiaries’ national identity cards (IDs), but repackaged the fertiliser bags and resold them on the market.
Kalaya said the fertiliser was bought at K15 000 per 50 kilogramme (kg) bag, which translates to K67.5 million. He said the three allegedly sold the repackaged bags at K70 000 each, earning an equivalent of K315 million.
He said: “So, after business went sour, one of them reported the syndicate to the police. After thorough interrogation, that’s when he [one of the suspects] admitted the syndicate with SFFRFM officials.”
Kalaya said Khomo has since been charged with abuse of office and theft by servant while Nyimbo and Lito, who ply their trade in Phalombe and Chikwawa, respectively, face a charge of obtaining goods by false pretence, forgery, fraud, uttering false documents and money laundering.
The arrest of the three, come at a time thousands farmers failed to redeem their inputs due to several challenges, including corruption, shortage of fertiliser and missing or expired national identity cards.
Human Rights Defenders Coalition chairperson Gift Trapence said yesterday that government needed to draw lessons from the 2022/23 AIP implementation shortfalls.
“One is to guard against abuse of the programme so that it benefits the intended beneficiaries. This should be done from procurement all the way to distribution of inputs to intended beneficiaries,” he said.
In the 2022/23 National Budget, government allocated K109.4 billion for the programme, which this year has been riddled with supply shortages and logistical challenges.
