By Mathews Kasanda & Isaac Salima
The Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) is expected to start selling maize in its markets across the country next week Thursday, as the Ministry of Agriculture has released 12,640 metric tonnes (mt) for the cause.
Minister responsible Sam Kawale told Parliament Thursday that the Ministry of Finance has released funds for the procurement of additional maize.
He, however, said the selling amount is yet to be communicated.
Kawale said while prioritising hard-hit areas, 10,170mt of maize are for the Southern Region, 1, 320mt are for the Central Region and 1,150mt for the Northern Region.
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“This is just phase one, or the end of phase one. We will come back with distribution metrics for phase two and three,” he told the House.
The minister said Admarc markets would be used while, in some locations, new markets would be introduced.
“Other areas will be serviced with mobile markets. Remember that we are not going to do [send maize to] all the Admarc [depots]at once. So, we have different phases because of logistical issues. Let us send [maize] to the first set, then we will go to the second round and then to the third round.
“As such, if your depot is not there, it does not mean it will not happen but it [maize] will go in the next phase,” the minister said when responding to questions from some legislators.
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Minister of Finance Sosten Gwengwe communicated to the House that the government had identified resources from multiple sources that would be used in procuring the maize.
He disclosed that the National Food Reserve Agency already has K10 billion in foreign currency.
“We are also in the process of repurposing some 20 million or so [United States] dollars from existing projects. These will be projects of the World Bank so that we also repurpose some significant amount towards this exercise,” Gwengwe said.
The minister said, to stabilise maize prices, there was a need for a significant injection of maize from outside the country and that, as such, the government is working with its partners to have the resources in dollars.
Thyolo Thava parliamentarian Mary Navicha asked the Ministry of Agriculture to open more markets in her constituency where, she said, the price of maize has hit K50,000 per 50 kilogramme bag, such that some constituents are spending nights without food.
“People need food,” she said.
Leader of the House Richard Chimwendo Banda said, eventually, all the districts would be supplied with Admarc maize.
He parliamentarians to be monitoring what is happening with maize in their constituencies to avoid cases where some people sell the staple food to vendors.
Meanwhile, some of the Admarc employees we talked to yesterday complained that they have not been paid since they started offering their services in February this year.
“After all the employees were fired in January, the institution engaged some of us who were taking care of the items in depots. However, we did not have a formal agreement on how much we will be paid. We were told that we will be on three-month contract and that we will be getting our dues on monthly basis.
“The three months elapsed without being paid anything. We were also told to continue working for another three months and, after that, some of us started receiving money for the last three months. Some were paid while others are yet to get anything,” one of the workers from Ntcheu District said.
He also claimed that the skeleton staff that worked when the company suspended its services in September last year to January this year were also not paid.
The source claimed that the skeleton staff includes security guards, clerks and marketing officers.
“The situation is bad because some of us have not been paid. There has not been communication on when we will be paid. Imagine not getting paid for six months while you are working daily. It is bad,” a security guard said.
In January this year, Admarc retrenched all its workers as part of its restructuring process.
The institution later released vacancies, indicating that it wanted to recruit about 2,000 staff members.
Admarc has managed to fill some of its senior positions but is yet to fill some junior positions.
The development means that the institution will have to first hire some labour force to be placed in the depots.
For instance in Ntcheu, Admarc completely closed 12 markets. Now 11 markets are operating but have no maize.
Responding to the issue, Kawale said the Treasury had prepared payment for the workers.
“Some will be [engaged] on month-to-month contracts until recruitment is finalised. Admarc maize will be distributed once we finalise logistics and the labour force will be there,” Kawale said.
On his part, Admarc Chief Executive Officer Dan Makata said all employees’ salary arrears were paid.
“Everyone was paid up to July,” Makata said.
