Maravi

Enhance efforts to recover stolen public funds, Gjos advises govt

Enhance efforts to recover stolen public funds, Gjos advises govt
Written by George Zulu in Mazabuka
Friday, July 03, 2009 3:16:49 PM

NORWEGIAN Ambassador to Zambia Tore Gjos has asked the government to enhance its efforts in recovering public funds allegedly misappropriated by civil servants.
And Ambassador Gjos said Zambia’s food security is threatened by climate change.

In an interview after officially opening the Matantala Rural Integrated Development Enterprise (M-RIDE), Ambassador Gjos said although his country had not withdrawn aid to Zambia, the government needed to increase efforts to retrieve the money allegedly misappropriated by government workers.

“…Norway has not pulled out but the main issue here is for government to double its efforts in retrieving the money alleged to have been misappropriated by public officers in order to build the confidence in the system which I believe your government is addressing. Donor funds should be used for the intended purpose,” he said.

And Ambassador Gjos advised small-scale farmers to stop practicing old farming methods of handover from mother to child as they could not handle periods of drought and floods and other effects brought about by climate change.

“We are supporting the Zambia National Farmers Union in fostering and promoting conservation farming which we feel is sustainable to Zambia. When we look at the effect of climate change which has a great challenge on the Zambian food security and this year we target 160,000 farmers…climate change poses threats on the food security of the nation and it is a great challenge for all stakeholders which needs to be addressed with the attention it deserves,” Ambassador Gjos said.

He said agriculture was key to national development and could contribute a lot to poverty reduction, adding that the Norwegian embassy through the M-RIDE project supported agricultural activities to ensure that the underprivileged people in rural areas had access to food.

Ambassador Gjos said farmers should learn farming methods which were more resilient to climate change.

And chief Hanjalika said he was concerned that people in his chiefdom were exchanging maize with beer, a situation he described as unfortunate and retrogressive to national food security.

Chief Hanjalika said communities and the country at large should put in place measures to create a sustainable food security method, adding that waiting and begging for relief food would compromise the security of the nation.

“I get concerned when I see people exchanging maize for beer even when their maize is still in the field and it is also a concern that there is an increase in briefcase maize buyers who are exploiting small-scale farmers. They come and buy maize at a giveaway price of K36,000 when government has already announced this year’s maize floor price,” said chief Hanjalika.

“I challenge people of Zambia to stop exploiting themselves by allowing people who are not farmers to dictate the price, farmers should not rush to sell their produce at a cheap and exploitative price, they should learn to cost their produce otherwise the efforts to fight poverty and hunger through increased production of maize and other farm produce will be in vain.”

Labels: CORRUPTION, TORE GJOS

posted by MrK @ 2:17 PM