US$30 million worth of “Presidential Input Scheme” looted
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
By Staff Reporter 16/01/2012 18:58:00
HARARE – Robert Mugabe’s controversial “Presidential Well Wishers Special
Input Scheme” meant to benefit party loyalists masquerading as farmers has
been looted; US$30 million worth of inputs have disappeared and members of
the Central Intelligence have been called-in to investigate the scandal.
Farmers have appealed to relevant authorities to investigate cases in which
some people are reported to have looted fertilisers being disbursed under
the Presidential Well Wishers Special Input Scheme.
Farmers who were supposed to benefit under the US$27 million input scheme
are breathing fire, claiming that some people in positions of authority
abused the facility by taking large quantities of fertiliser at the expense
of the intended beneficiaries.
Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) Director, Mr Paul Zakariya said his
organisation has been inundated with calls from aggrieved farmers who want
relevant authorities to urgently intervene.
The Grain Marketing Board (GMB) Deputy General Manager, Mr Lawrence Jasi
distanced the parastatal from the administration process of the presidential
inputs scheme, saying GMB is only involved in the Government Inputs Scheme.
Contacted for comment, the Minister of State Security, Sydney Sekeramayi
said they are investigating the matter while Minister of State for
Presidential Affairs, Didymus “Diesel from Rocks” Mutasa argued that the
provision of inputs under the presidential programme is progressing well,
adding that the office is not aware of reports of corruption. Mutasa
However, farmers insist that culprits should be brought to book.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti has defended his agriculture funding record
insisting criticism of his policies was only coming from failed farmers,
among them ministers in the country’s coalition government. Biti has come
under fire from cabinet colleagues accusing him of undermining the country’s
land reforms by “refusing” to adequately fund the Grain Marketing Board
(GMB) and help farmers procure inputs. Defence Minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa
recently said the GMB was failing to pay farmers for grain supplies after
being refused funding by Biti.
“We are worried that farmers struggle to get agricultural inputs due to lack
of funds when they are owed huge sums of money by the GMB,” Mnangagwa told
farmers at a meeting in Chiredzi. We put the blame squarely on Finance
Minister Biti of the MDC-T who does not release funds to the GMB on time,”
he said.
But Biti dismissed the criticism claiming more than US$2 billion dollars has
been put into agriculture since the formation of the coalition government in
2009.
“The people who criticise our work at the ministry, especially what we have
done for the agricultural sector, do so from the viewpoint of malice and
total ignorance,” Biti said in an interview with The Herald. “This is so
particularly with failed farmers, some of whom masquerade as Cabinet
ministers who continue to be called new farmers even after 11 years of the
land reform programme.”
He said agriculture accounted for up to 40 percent of total government
expenditure since 2009 adding the sector had only started recovering after
the formation of the coalition government. “In 2008, we could not find a bag
of maize meal, wheat production was zero and coffee and tea plantations had
become sites of tourism. But in a very short period, agricultural output has
massively grown because of the interventions of the inclusive Government,”
he said.
Biti claimed some of his critics were actually responsible for the collapse
of agriculture in the last decade adding they were further holding back
recovery of the sector by blocking a much-needed land audit.
“Unfortunately, the non-genuine farmer in powerful political positions is
afraid of the (land) audit, which will expose that they are multiple farm
owners. It will further expose the vicious malpractices taking place on the
land. There is land that is not being productively used and that is what the
audit will expose.”
Biti said the government did not have the resources to fully fund
agriculture and warned that a full turn-around in the sector would not be
achieved unless farmers were given “securitised long land leases”.
“There is no Government in the world that can ever finance agriculture in
full. To expect the Government of the day, particularly the present GNU, to
be able to finance agriculture is fiction,” he said. “We can talk about
financing agriculture until the cows come home but as long as the farmers do
not have securitised long land leases, then let us forget about agriculture
beyond subsistence farming.
“As long as the land does not have title, it is dead capital, it has no
useful and exchange value. More importantly, without security of tenure,
farmers cannot borrow money from the banks to finance their operations.”
The MDC has been calling for a transparent and non-partisan distribution of
farming inputs to vulnerable farming communities.
This follows the launch of the Presidential Special Input Scheme by
President Robert Mugabe where free seed and fertiliser would be distributed
to over 710 000 households countrywide.
The Presidential input scheme recently torched a storm in the coalition
government with the MDC accusing Zanu PF of politicising the scheme, which
is being funded by the taxpayer.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti who is secretary-general for the MDC has
mantained that no individual or political party should monopolise national
resources for political party gains.
“The MDC recognises the existence of vulnerable farming groups in the
country in particular communal farmers and therefore accepts that government
must support these vulnerable farmers.
“However, the party is concerned by the skewed and politically biased
distribution of farming inputs such as seed and fertiliser and the use of
inputs and food as a campaign tool by the ministry of Agriculture and the
Grain Marketing Board which borders on vote buying,” said Biti.
Biti said the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare was responsible for
people’s welfare and was the only ministry responsible for distribution of
aid to the disadvantaged population, not the ministry of Agriculture.
The ministry of Labour and Social Welfare is led by an MDC minister, Paurina
Mpariwa-Gwanyanya.
The calls by Biti will fly in the face of Zanu PF which had been devising
campaign strategies using national resources meant to benefit every citizen,
a move that saw national projects like the land reform benefiting those
believed to be Zanu PF supporters.
The Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono unveiled an ambitious agricultural
mechanisation project that saw mainly Zanu PF supporters access farm
implements for free as a campaign strategy by the former ruling party.
Similarly, observers have also raised concern over the current
indigenisation and empowerment programme being touted by Zanu PF saying it
has been hijacked by Mugabe’s party for political gains.
Biti on Saturday said the indigenisation programme was a “rent seeking
regime” and called for a complete restart. Biti said the ministry of
Agriculture was supposed to be apolitical in its distribution of farming
inputs.
“The MDC calls on the Ministry of Agriculture and the Grain Marketing Board
to distribute farming inputs in a transparent manner,” Biti said.