Opposition leader Dr. Kondwani Nankhumwa has accused President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera and his agriculture Minister Lobin Lowe of casting a blind eye on the alleged missing MK 30 Billion which was meant for the procurement of fertilizer under the Affordable Inputs Program(AIP).
It is reported that the Ministry of Agriculture through Smallholder Farmers Fertilizer Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRM) has been duped MK30 Billion through a dubious deal with a UK-based Company which was contracted to supply fertilizer to the country.
Addressing the media in Blantyre on Thursday Dr. Nankhumwa, who is Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Vice President for the South, expressed shock to note that Chakwera and Lowe are all sleeping and behaving like nothing has happened.
“Most disturbing are the revelations that the Ministry of Agriculture has just lost MK30 billion to conmen who disguised themselves as fertilizer suppliers and later vanished without trace. This is unprecedented in the history of government procurement in the country,” said Dr Nankhumwa
He added: “This is a national scandal, to say the least, and I cannot begin to imagine how the whole Ministry can be conned in such a manner. Elsewhere, heads would have rolled to show seriousness on the matter. But as usual, President Lazarus Chakwera and the responsible Minister are all sleeping and behaving like nothing has happened. As a matter of fact, how much forex is MK30 billion?”
Nankhumwa then called upon President Dr. Chakwera to make a public statement on the scam and what he is doing about it as a national figurehead adding that Malawians deserve to know what happened.
In related development, the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has called upon President Chakwera to suspend all individuals involved in the 30 Billion Kwacha AIP scandal, and further called upon the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to launch a probe into the matter.
However, the Ministry of Agriculture through its Secretary Sandram Muweru has refuted the allegations that the government has lost K30 billion on a fertilizer deal.
In a statement Muweru said the government through the Ministry of Agriculture engaged the Smallholder Farmers Fertilizer Revolving Fund (SFFRFM) to process the procurement of fertilizers towards the 2022 – 2023 Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP).
It added contracts with a UK-based company Barkaat Foods Limited, SFFRFM was requested to pay a commitment fee of about K750 million to lock the price, which was remitted through Ecobank.
The statement further said, the company failed to supply and consequently terminated the contract.
“Barkaat Foods Limited failed to supply and consequently terminated the contract citing loss of the production line at Yara (UK) and that they could no longer commit to supply the fertilizer and agreed to transfer the fee back to SFFRM through the same ECOBank.”
According to the Ministry, the advanced commitment fee payment of 727,000 u$ (equivalent to MK 750 Million) is under recall and will be received by the end of this month.
An investigation by Malawi Voice Online has revealed that Barkaat Foods Limited is a slaughterhouse that deals with livestock, not fertilizer business.
