Committee threatens to reject agriculture vote over Admarc underfunding

The Parliamentary Cluster on Agriculture and Food Security has cautioned that it will turn down Agriculture Ministry Vote in the proposed 2022-2023 national budget if there will be no funding allocation to Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc).

The development follows a move by Treasury not to fund the grain state marketer K48 billion which the Corporation requested from government.

Speaking after having an interface with Admarc officials in Lilongwe, the Cluster’s Chairperson Sameer Suleman said Admarc is in serious financial crisis.

“As a Committee we are very sad to hear that currently Admarc is failing to pay wages yet government owes it K23 billion which has been outstanding for sometime,” Suleman said.

“You remember last year we made similar sentiments that we wanted government to bailout Admarc, but we were fooled by the then Minister of Finance who didn’t keep his word, he went against what was agreed.”

Suleman also faulted government for side-lining with foreign companies leaving Admarc in dire straits.

“As Parliament, as a Committee we will not pass the Ministry of Agriculture budget if there is no money allocated to Admarc,” Suleman said.

“Government is always ready to give Letters of Credit (LCs) of credit to these foreign briefcase companies, but for Admarc to be given LCs it always comes a problem because someone is not eating there.”

Commenting on the development, Admarc General Manager Rhino Chiphiko said government still owes the Corporation K23 billion.

“We got a Memorandum of Understanding between us and government that for whatever costs we incur as Admarc we have to reclaim from government,” Chiphiko said.

“But the problem is that government hasn’t given us this money which is duly ours, we worked for this money and now we are struggling to pay salaries.”

Presenting the budget statement last week in Parliament, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Sosten Gwengwe said the agriculture sector has been allocated K447.66 billion representing 3.9 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 15.8 percent of the total budget.