FRA: K184 million worth of maize sold can’t be traced

By Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba

K184 million worth of maize sold can’t be traced

FRA; Unaccounted for Maize Sales- K184,303,600

The Controlling Officer clarified that the query was as a result of the reconciliation between
the records presented to the auditors by the FRA Head Office and the District Office. The
delivery orders issued under Nakonde District submitted by the Head Office were in metric
tonnes while those submitted by the District included the number of bags, not indicated as Metric Tons. This, therefore, created a discrepancy which caused the query.ter.

d) Operational Matters

i. Poor Storage of Maize – K4,006,720
The Controlling Officer explained that the Agency had 956,950 Mt secured storage capacity at the beginning of the 2022, crop marketing season.

The carry over grain from the 2021, crop
marketing season was 1,138,000 Mt and a total of 384,802 Mt of maize and soya beans was purchased. This brought the total grain held by the Agency to1,522,802 Mt during the year, against the limited storage space of 956,950 Mt.

Following the above, the Agency had to lease additional storage space and keep excess stock under tarpaulin cover. Unfortunately, the stock kept under tarpaulin cover deteriorated.
Further, the bottom layers of the stock kept out doors was affected by moisture seepage and in some cases, overheating, resulting, therefore, in quality deterioration.

Nonetheless, as a corrective measure, the Controlling Officer informed the Committee that the Agency had a storage investment plan to bring the total storage capacity to two million Mt, by constructing and rehabilitating an additional storage space of 1,035,000 Mt by 2026.With the said additional space, all the stock procured would be secured.