Accountability, good governance over fund worries council

THE Micro Small Medium Enterprise (MSME) Council says the idea for districts to use their agriculture Covid-19 funds to support commodity prices is good but issues of governance and accountability need to be mitigated.
President Desmond Yaninen when responding to queries from The National, said there needed to be clarity.
“We think that it is a good idea. It encourages people to work and increases productivity,” Yaninen said.
“However, governance and accountability risks need to be mitigated.
“ We need clarity on that.”
When asked if the council had seen tangible evidence of outcomes from the government’s economic support package for agriculture and MSME programmes in the districts, Yaninen said: “We are not privy to that at this point.”
“We hope the K2 million per district which consists of K500,000 for SMEs, K1 million for agriculture sector support and K500,000 for water and sanitation has been used for the intended purpose.”
Agriculture and Livestock Minister John Simon, in an interview with The National, urged MPs to use their K1 million in agriculture funds under the Government’s economic stimulus package for price support.
Simon said this would encourage farming and raise production of commodities and other agricultural products in the country.
He said that the Government was injecting cash into the rural economy and to boost the agricultural sector and that local members needed to use the funds for agriculture interventions such as price support.
The Government had also appropriated K30 million for price stabilisation of agriculture products in the 2020 Supplementary Budget, according to Simon.