Maravi

Scott urges govt to probe Chongwe missing fertilizer

Scott urges govt to probe Chongwe missing fertilizer
Written by Ernest Chanda in Chongwe
Wednesday, January 14, 2009 10:00:04 AM

OPPOSITION Patriotic Front vice-president Dr Guy Scott has called on government to investigate the disappearance of several bags of fertiliser given to farmers in Chongwe district last year under the Fertiliser Support Programme.

This was after Dr Scott’s tour of some cooperative societies in Chongwe district yesterday revealed that of the 23,887 farmers registered in the district, only 5,600 received fertiliser.

And Muchetekelo multipurpose cooperative society chairman Bona Shacholi revealed that there were too many bogus cooperative societies that had mushroomed in the area to access government-subsidised fertiliser.

In an interview after the tour, Dr Scott said it was important that government made a serious probe into the missing fertilizer.

“This is a scandal, especially that most of the people for whom fertiliser was intended did not receive it. The question then is who received the fertiliser? Of course, we know that it was a campaign ploy, but even then, government should have honoured their promise. The nation cannot afford to lose K400 billion fertiliser subsidies in unexplained circumstances,” he said.

Dr Scott urged government to be serious with all pronouncements they make.

“Let them [government] only bite off what they can chew. There is no point in talking about programmes that they cannot fulfill just because you want to win an election. And let them stop talking about diversification because all the inputs will be stolen again,” said Dr Scott.

And Shacholi said most people who got the fertiliser had smuggled it out somewhere.

Labels: CHONGWE, FSP, GUY SCOTT

posted by MrK @ 10:01 AM