UPND killing agriculture ‘methodically’ – Mundubile
By Fanny Kalonda
MPOROKOSO PF member of parliament Brian Mundubile says government should immediately increase the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit budget to deal with the distribution of farming inputs.
This follows failure by some fertiliser suppliers to deliver on time, according to their contractual obligations with the government.
Addressing journalists in Lusaka on Friday, Mundubile also said the government should declare the fertiliser distribution programme a disaster.
“The President must declare this a disaster. The whole fertiliser distribution programme, the FISP and CASP (Comprehensive Agriculture Support Programme), we must declare these programmes a disaster this year. And by so doing, he must immediately instruct the Minister of Finance to move amendments to the budget; budgets to do with the DMMU, Ministry of Community Development, because we expect to have hunger. Most of these families are going to go to absolute poverty to be able to mitigate that let us not wait but begin to work on supplementary budget,” he urged. “He can move amendments now in increased allocation to DMMU, increase allocation to the Ministry of Community Development, that is the best way to go about things. There is no need for us to bury our heads in the sand. This programme has been a mess.”
Mundubile accused the UPND of ‘’meticulously and methodically’’ killing the agriculture sector.
“…How can it be a comprehensive agriculture programme and deliver so much far less? I think the starting point for me when you talk about the Farmer Input Support Programme, we should be talking about the ideology of the party. Why are we all surprised that the UPND has meticulously and methodically killed the agriculture sector? Why are we surprised?” he said. “The UPND is not a pro-poor party. The UPND has no interest of the poor. If it had you would have drugs in hospitals all over the country. We would have fertilisers in warehouses around the country. What excuse will they have? The PF because it was a pro-poor party even amidst the pandemic we had fertilisers in warehouses even as early as June. When the UPND took over power in August, they found warehouses filled with fertilisers. During election time there were no ministers, they were dissolved in May, but fertiliser was delivered…The UPND government started running this budget in January, what excuse will they have?”
He said “this is a government that managed to give out tax holidays barely two months in office” but has failed to effectively continue with procurement and distribution of farming inputs.
“They successfully gave out concessions to the mining houses, after hardly two months in office. How did they manage to do all that and yet failed to just continue with the procurement of fertiliser? The answer is simple. This is not a government that cares for the poor people. This is a government that will go out of its way to serve the interest of the rich,” Mundubile said.
And Mundubile said Zambians should not sit back and listen to President Hichilema talk about the fight against corruption when what he is doing is the opposite.
He said as a government that has put itself out to be fighting corruption, it is expected that they conduct themselves in a manner that builds confidence in citizens.
“When the President was in opposition, he campaigned vigorously that president [Edgar] Lungu was giving contracts to his friends; this was corruption. He called it corruption then, he should also call it corruption now. I want to call it corruption using his definition because if he is going to allow companies that are owned by friends or indeed companies where he has interests to be single sourced, everywhere; talk of the mines, KCM, Mopani, military units, the same companies are doing work. What should we call it,” he asked.
“What we have seen however is that most of the procurements ever since they came into power have to do with single sourcing. Most of you that have read the Auditor General’s report, the Auditor General has been advising strongly against using single sourcing as a mode of procurement. Whereas it is provided for by law, it should be used only in circumstances where it is inevitable. But we have seen that it is a preferred mode of procurement under the UPND government. And this is a government that purports to put the fight against corruption right on top of its priorities.”
Mundubile also wondered what motivated government to contract private firms to start auditing defence units.
“We do not think the current office of the Auditor General is incapable or unable to carryout audits or indeed special assignments at the defence units. We are in the process of approving the budget, if at all there was need for recruitment, this was the time for the ministry in charge of the Auditor General’s office to present a budget so that we can employ people at the Auditor General’s office so that they carry out these sensitive assignments,” he said. “As members of parliament, we are very very worried that this government has gone to this extent. What could have motivated government to contract private firms to go and start auditing defence units? We know that defence officers, senior officers, are very unhappy about this. Members of the public are also very unhappy about this. Even for us as members of parliament we are very unhappy about it. What is even worse is we know to say the actual contracts were not signed by the Auditor General but by other institutions outside the Auditor General’s office. And yet the law provides that it is only the Auditor General who is supposed to sign those agreements.”
Mundubile accused President Hichilema of giving his friends business through single sourcing, which he said was unacceptable.
‘’We cannot turn Zambia into a private business. We want to call upon the President to resist the temptation of believing that Zambia is now his private business. Let the President understand that the way we run a business and the way a country is run are totally different,” said Mundubile. “And these particular contracts were not given out to public tender. So this is very strange for a man that has said he will fight corruption. So, President Hakainde Hichilema, my dear brother, let it be known to you here and now that the way you are going to run the country is not the way you run a private business. What we are seeing now is your friends and your companies being given business everyday through single sourcing. This is unacceptable. And we are going to call it out for what it is, this is corruption. And I hope that from here, the President and his handlers will sit down and reflect to ensure that if they are going to build confidence in the Zambian people, in the fight against corruption, we must see that political will.”