Sam Kawale to clear Lobin Lowe’s rubble

Congratulations Mr. Sam Dalitso Kawale on being appointed Minister of Agriculture. I know you were already holding a Cabinet portfolio so I am congratulating you only because of the enormous amount of trust President Lazarus Chakwera has in you that you can help him fix the mess that has rocked your new ministry.

On that regard, I reckon you have a gargantuan task on your hands. It means you have no time for honeymoon or to ‘sit down’ properly. Your immediate mandate—to deliver on the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP)—is actually bigger than one can imagine. This is because you have been placed there, first and foremost, to clear the rubble left by your predecessor. In short, you have a crisis before you and a difficult terrain to navigate through.

This is the mess, first and foremost, about the AIP initiative. For two financial years, 2020/21 and 2021/22, the man who warmed that office has had nothing to show for the K300 billion he was entrusted to manage through AIP. I wrote on this very page early last year that in the 2020/21 AIP season, people were sympathetic to the Tonse administration in general, and to the former minister of agriculture Lobin Lowe, in particular. “It was a trial year considering the short time government had to put together and roll out such a massive programme. But that sympathy won’t be there anymore this year (Off the shelf 299; November, 2021).”

The undoing for the AIP in the 2020/21 season were the rampant leakages, so-called network hitches and corruption which allowed many ineligible people to access cheap fertiliser.

Come the 2021/22 season, it was more of the same problems, but this time round compounded with late delivery of AIP materials—fertiliser and seeds—to beneficiaries. The nation was told hundreds of companies contracted to supply fertilizer pulled out of the programme at the eleventh hour. Why? One could only blame the development on poor planning of the programme. Those contracted to supply fertilizer were in business where they expected to get a return from their investments. If there was nothing for them, it made business sense to pull out.

Following the mess, there were loud calls for Lowe to resign or for President Lazarus Chakwera to replace him for failing to manage the programme. The result of mismanaging last year’s AIP which cost the taxpayer a dizzying K140 billion, is that government still has to feed 3.8 million souls from November to march next year. Of course, this cannot be blamed on Lowe alone, but one cannot run away from the fact that with better management of the programme, the number of people who will be without food during the lean period would have been much lower.

But still, somehow, despite all that mess, the President spared Lowe in that crucial office. In an abundant display of patience for Lowe, Chakwera wanted him to try a third time. Maybe, just maybe, he would nail it doing it for the third time. But nay! After overseeing two AIP seasons Lowe was none the wiser. And a litany of mishaps was to follow. If anything, Lowe had become dumber and blinder.

Some of the mishaps that have happened under his watch are the closure of Admarc and the attendant soaring prices of maize, the skyrocketing fertiliser prices now at over K70 000 per 50 kilogramme bag and the K330 million fraud at Admarc. Scarcity of maize has also raised the price of the commodity to over K22 500 per 50 kilogramme bag in most parts of the country.

Bad as all these are, Malawians were dismayed this week to learn about the disappearance of 410 metric tonnes of maize valued at K123 million. The grain disappeared in transit from Admarc depots to the National Food Reserve Agency silos. We hear the maize crossed the border to Tanzania. The matter is in court.

Then before long, Barkaat Foods Limited happened. A food company swindled government out of a whopping K750 million. So weird how Lowe in his wisdom confidently thought a butcher would supply him fertilizer. The long and short is that this is a botched deal in which the food supplying company was contracted to supply 25 000 metric tonnes of fertiliser for this year’s AIP. Suffice to say that the Barkaat deal was the final straw that broke the camel’s back. On this one, Lowe failed to follow even the most basic procedures of public procurement. He skipped Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority, the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Government Contracting out Unit, all of which have vetting functions on procurement. Needless to say in executing the deal, Lowe must have been working in cahoots with other senior people in and outside government. But the buck stops with the minister.

In short, this is the rubble you, Mr Kawale, has to clear before settling down in your new role. As you can see, you need to hit the ground running because time is of the essence. You have none to waste. This would be a poisoned chalice if you don’t tread carefully because the terrain is slippery. There are huge expectations from you. Otherwise I wish you all the best. As for Mr. Lowe all the best as well; there is life outside the Cabinet.