Smallholder Farmers Fertiliser Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) has confirmed that it has finally received the money which government has been trying to reclaim following a botched fertiliser deal last year.
The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and Human Rights Defenders Coalition have since demanded that those responsible for this controversial transaction should be held to account.
Last year, Malawi paid K750 million to Barkaat Foods Limited of the United Kingdom for the firm, which turned out to be a butchery, to supply fertiliser for the Affordable Input Programme.
The company terminated the contract after pocketing the money claiming it had lost the supply line with Yara UK, one of the world’s fertiliser manufacturing firms.
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The revelation caused an uproar in Malawi, with government being pressed to recover the public funds.
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Government has been trying to reclaim part of the money through the Germany system where the funds were deposited.
prosecutor’s office facilitated the transfer
Two weeks ago, Attorney General (AG) Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda provided a written confirmation from a German prosecution authorities that the money amounting to about K516 million had been transferred back to Malawi.
Now, Chief Accountant at SFFRFM, Watison Chirambo, has told Malawi News that the money finally reflected in the company’s official account Friday.
Chirambo, however, could not give evidence from the bank about the transfer.
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He said he had sent all the documentation to the office of the Attorney General.
When contacted to show the evidence of the statement from the bank, Chakaka Nyirenda said he had received the documentation and said he wanted to seek approval from the bank.
“I am waiting for the bank to give me the go-ahead if I am to show you the evidence,” Chakaka Nyirenda said.
While commending the purported recovery of the money, chairperson of the committee, Mark Botomani, said what now remains is to take to task involved in this transaction.
“We applaud the Attorney General for his tireless efforts to ensure the money is recovered. But truth be told, we could have avoided this situation if we had people who were patriotic enough and committed to following the law.
“In that regard, there isn’t really much to celebrate because we also know that the government has had to spend a lot of money for this recovery,” Botomani said.
He said the question now is whether those involved in this deal will face the law.
This position is shared by the chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Sameer Suleman, who has demanded proof of payment and Attorney General’s next move as the government’s chief legal expert.
“AG has all the information; now we want some government officials that were involved in this dubious deal to be arrested,” Suleman said.
He said the committee is now interested in knowing how much it has cost the taxpayer to recover the money since the AG has been up and down trying to get it back.
Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale has said the government has yet to discuss what to do with the returned money.
“We have yet to discuss what to do with the money,” Kawale said
Chairperson of the Human Rights Defenders Coalition, Gift Trapence, said this should be a big accountability lesson for the government.
“We need the government to be committed to adhering to procurement procedures. Malawians want value for their taxes. This should not only be a lesson, but those suspected of having flouted the procedures should be held accountable,” Trapence said.
In November last year, Nyirenda applied to the court in Germany for the repatriation of $543,000 allegedly frozen in that country.
This was part of the money that the Barkaat Foods Limited received to supply about 25,000 metric tonnes of fertiliser.
Nyirenda assured the nation that the money would be fully recovered after his office also recovered $182,000 that was deposited into an account of Bova Investment Corporation, based in New Jersey, United States of America.
