By Cathy Maulidi:
Ministry of Agriculture says cartels are sabotaging the supply of fertiliser to the country, thereby handicapping the country’s agricultural sector.
These cartels, according to Principal Secretary in the ministry responsible for technical services Medrina Mloza Banda, are manipulating prices and causing fertiliser costs to keep increasing.
Mloza Banda revealed to the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture yesterday that cartels exist in both local and foreign fertiliser suppliers.
“To me most of the suppliers work as cartels. They usually increase prices at a critical time because they know we would accept since we are racing against time. The moment one of them requests for an addendum, all of them come out to do the same. This is because they work together,” Mloza Banda said.
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She told the committee that this year’s AIP suppliers requested contract prices to be adjusted upwards soon after contracts were awarded.
Because of time, the government held discussions with them and eventually accepted the requested price adjustments.
According to Mloza Banda, despite the price adjustments to K95 000 per bag, the suppliers are failing to deliver.
She said because the procurement laws in Malawi require that 60 percent of the tenders go to Malawians and 40 to the international suppliers, most of the AIP contracts were awarded to the locals.
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“But we are struggling with them. I gave them four to six weeks to deliver and as of Monday last week, their time had expired and I’m supposed to terminate their contracts,” she said.
The committee’s chairperson Sameer Suleman said if left unchecked the cartels will cripple the country’s agriculture sector completely.
“The fact that cartels have managed to embed themselves within the ministry’s structure raises serious concerns about the extent of their influence and potential manipulation of policy decisions. These cartels must be stopped. What we want is fertiliser for our people,” Suleman said.
