US$30 Million Worth Of "Presidential Input Scheme" Looted

Robert Mugabe's controversial "Presidential Well Wishers Special Input Scheme" meant to benefit party loyalists masquerading as farmers has been looted; US$30 million worth of inputs have disappeared and members of the Central Intelligence have been called-in to investigate the scandal.

Farmers have appealed to relevant authorities to investigate cases in which some people are reported to have looted fertilisers being disbursed under the Presidential Well Wishers Special Input Scheme.

Farmers who were supposed to benefit under the US$27 million input scheme are breathing fire, claiming that some people in positions of authority abused the facility by taking large quantities of fertiliser at the expense of the intended beneficiaries.

Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) Director, Mr Paul Zakariya said his organisation has been inundated with calls from aggrieved farmers who want relevant authorities to urgently intervene.

The Grain Marketing Board (GMB) Deputy General Manager, Mr Lawrence Jasi distanced the parastatal from the administration process of the presidential inputs scheme, saying GMB is only involved in the Government Inputs Scheme.

Contacted for comment, the Minister of State Security, Sydney Sekeramayi said they are investigating the matter while Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Didymus "Diesel from Rocks" Mutasa argued that the provision of inputs under the presidential programme is progressing well, adding that the office is not aware of reports of corruption.

However, farmers insist that culprits should be brought to book.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti has defended his agriculture funding record insisting criticism of his policies was only coming from failed farmers, among them ministers in the country’s coalition government. Biti has come under fire from cabinet colleagues accusing him of undermining the country’s land reforms by “refusing” to adequately fund the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) and help farmers procure inputs. Defence Minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa recently said the GMB was failing to pay farmers for grain supplies after being refused funding by Biti.

“We are worried that farmers struggle to get agricultural inputs due to lack of funds when they are owed huge sums of money by the GMB,” Mnangagwa told farmers at a meeting in Chiredzi. We put the blame squarely on Finance Minister Biti of the MDC-T who does not release funds to the GMB on time,” he said.

But Biti dismissed the criticism claiming more than US$2 billion dollars has been put into agriculture since the formation of the coalition government in 2009.

“The people who criticise our work at the ministry, especially what we have done for the agricultural sector, do so from the viewpoint of malice and total ignorance,” Biti said in an interview with The Herald. “This is so particularly with failed farmers, some of whom masquerade as Cabinet ministers who continue to be called new farmers even after 11 years of the land reform programme.”

He said agriculture accounted for up to 40 percent of total government expenditure since 2009 adding the sector had only started recovering after the formation of the coalition government. “In 2008, we could not find a bag of maize meal, wheat production was zero and coffee and tea plantations had become sites of tourism. But in a very short period, agricultural output has massively grown because of the interventions of the inclusive Government,” he said.

Biti claimed some of his critics were actually responsible for the collapse of agriculture in the last decade adding they were further holding back recovery of the sector by blocking a much-needed land audit.

“Unfortunately, the non-genuine farmer in powerful political positions is afraid of the (land) audit, which will expose that they are multiple farm owners. It will further expose the vicious malpractices taking place on the land. There is land that is not being productively used and that is what the audit will expose.”

Biti said the government did not have the resources to fully fund agriculture and warned that a full turn-around in the sector would not be achieved unless farmers were given “securitised long land leases”.

“There is no Government in the world that can ever finance agriculture in full. To expect the Government of the day, particularly the present GNU, to be able to finance agriculture is fiction,” he said. “We can talk about financing agriculture until the cows come home but as long as the farmers do not have securitised long land leases, then let us forget about agriculture beyond subsistence farming.

“As long as the land does not have title, it is dead capital, it has no useful and exchange value. More importantly, without security of tenure, farmers cannot borrow money from the banks to finance their operations.”

The MDC has been calling for a transparent and non-partisan distribution of farming inputs to vulnerable farming communities.

This follows the launch of the Presidential Special Input Scheme by President Robert Mugabe where free seed and fertiliser would be distributed to over 710000 households countrywide.

The Presidential input scheme recently torched a storm in the coalition government with the MDC accusing Zanu PF of politicising the scheme, which is being funded by the taxpayer.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti who is secretary-general for the MDC has mantained that no individual or political party should monopolise national resources for political party gains.

“The MDC recognises the existence of vulnerable farming groups in the country in particular communal farmers and therefore accepts that government must support these vulnerable farmers.

“However, the party is concerned by the skewed and politically biased distribution of farming inputs such as seed and fertiliser and the use of inputs and food as a campaign tool by the ministry of Agriculture and the Grain Marketing Board which borders on vote buying,” said Biti.

Biti said the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare was responsible for people’s welfare and was the only ministry responsible for distribution of aid to the disadvantaged population, not the ministry of Agriculture.

The ministry of Labour and Social Welfare is led by an MDC minister, Paurina Mpariwa-Gwanyanya.

The calls by Biti will fly in the face of Zanu PF which had been devising campaign strategies using national resources meant to benefit every citizen, a move that saw national projects like the land reform benefiting those believed to be Zanu PF supporters.

The Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono unveiled an ambitious agricultural mechanisation project that saw mainly Zanu PF supporters access farm implements for free as a campaign strategy by the former ruling party.

Similarly, observers have also raised concern over the current indigenisation and empowerment programme being touted by Zanu PF saying it has been hijacked by Mugabe’s party for political gains.

Biti on Saturday said the indigenisation programme was a “rent seeking regime” and called for a complete restart. Biti said the ministry of Agriculture was supposed to be apolitical in its distribution of farming inputs.

“The MDC calls on the Ministry of Agriculture and the Grain Marketing Board to distribute farming inputs in a transparent manner,” Biti said.

(Source)