The Agriculture Committee of Parliament on Friday sent back officials from the ministry of agriculture after coming without the ministry’s controlling officer.

According to Chairperson of the Committee Sameer Suleiman, the officials were supposed to come with the Principal Secretary who is a controlling officer saying that issues that were to be discussed are very crucial.

“We have sent back the officials from the Ministry so that they bring either the Minister of Agriculture or the Principal Secretary, these are some of the issues that we need to start dealing with and they need someone very senior from the Ministry,” said Suleiman.

“Suleiman added it will be difficult for the august House to approve a vote to the Ministry of Agriculture in the absence of description on the allocation,” emphasized Suleiman.

“It will be challenging for us to approve allocation to the Ministry if we are not shared with the required details on how the funds are going to be used by the Ministry.”

The Committee Chairperson since warned that the Committee has the powers to summon the responsible Minister of Agriculture if the Principal Secretary Erica Maganga fails to show up before the Committee.

“We have the powers to summon the Minister responsible, if the PS fails to show up,” stressed Suleiman.

Among other issues, the Committee is looking for an explanation on the newly introduced Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) unveiled by the Tonse-led administration and it has replaced the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP).