K528mil for agro misused

 A TOTAL of K528 million under the National Agriculture Development Programme (NADP) was misused between 2007 and 2012, National Planning Minister Charles Abel told Parliament yesterday.

He attributed the misappropriation to the lack of implementation and the failure to produce reports on the use of funds.

Abel said the implementation process began in 2008 administered by the Department of Agriculture and Livestock under a NADP secretariat. 

It failed to meet the expectations of the programme, he added.

Abel said when allegations of mismanagement surfaced, it was discovered that many government agencies had been involved in the disbursement of the fund from 2008-12.

The agencies responsible for implementing the NADP during this period were allocated K528 million. 

The break-up is as follow:

• Department of Agriculture and Livestock – K110 million (2006, 2007 and 2011);
• Department of National Planning and Monitoring – K169 million (2009 and 2010);
• National Development Bank – K160 million (2009-12); and
• Treasury Department – K89 million (2011).

Abel told parliament that to date, the NDB and most of the 89 districts had not reported on how the funds were used. 

The report he presented yesterday was based on the disbursement by National Planning and Agriculture departments totalling K279 million of which K28 million was used for non-agricultural activities and K252 million for agriculture. 

“We want to start the reporting process of this programme but we expect the Agriculture Department is the one that is supposed to be reporting on this project as the primary implementing agency under agriculture.

“I know that we are a new government and we have a new agriculture minister dealing with this and I don’t want to take over his role.

“But I am just presenting this because planning was largely involved here,” Abel said.