By Wezzie Gausi:
Parliament says there are no funds in the 2023- 24 national budget for it to conclude the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) inquiry which members of a Joint Parliamentary Committee commenced.
In October 2022, Parliament Secretariat set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to investigate AIP deals and the status of maize at Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation and National Food Reserve Agency.
The joint committee has members of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and Irrigation; Budget and Finance Committee; Public Accounts Committee; and Statutory Corporations Committee.
Among other things, they were tasked to investigate reports that the country had been duped of K750 million in a deal that government entered with a United Kingdom-based company.
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However, the committee is yet to conclude the inquiry.
Parliament spokesperson Ian Mwenye told The Daily Times that the inquiry was for two weeks only, adding that Parliament had to request for a special financial allocation from the Treasury.
He said, unfortunately, the inquiry was not concluded as per schedule.
“The inquiry can only be concluded once we are able to identify funds. It is unfortunate that Parliament has no funds for the continuation of the committee currently,” Mwenye said.
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Co-chairperson for the Joint Committee Sameer Suleman said the committee did not finish investigations into the matter.
He said some stakeholders were denied entry into the meeting room.
“We are now waiting for direction from the office of the Speaker of the National Assembly on the way forward. Malawians need to know the truth through this committee and we are not doing justice to our people,” Suleman said.
