RATIN

No low-cost fertiliser this season

Posted on January, 31, 2019 at 07:52 am


By AGATHA NGOTHO

The planting season is fast approaching but the government has not bought subsidised fertiliser to distribute to farmers.

The long rains are expected from mid-next month.

The decision not to supply subsidised fertiliser is the result of ongoing investigations in suspected irregularities in a 2016 contract.

The DCI and EACC are investigating payment of Sh2.1 billion to National Cereals and Produce Board to purchase  subsidised fertiliser.

The three months the agencies were given to probe the matter end today. But farmers have not received fertiliser.

Agriculture CAS Andrew Tuimur confirmed on Wednesday that the EACC is still investigating and the government cannot purchase fertiliser until the issue is sorted.

“Farmers will have to buy fertiliser from agrovets as the only option for accessing the commodity is through the e-voucher system, which is yet to be implemented,” he said.

According to a report tabled in the National Assembly in November last year, the investigating agencies were given three months to determine whether public funds were properly utilised in the fertiliser programme.

The agencies are to establish how much money was raised from the sale of subsidised fertiliser.

Last year, the Auditor General raised a red flag over the Sh2.1 billion spent by the NCPB to buy fertiliser for farmers.

In his report for 2014-25, Auditor General Edward Ouko concluded taxpayers could have lost money after NCPB failed to produce documents to confirm the purchase.

The report before the Public Accounts Committee indicated Sh2,129,128,557.70 was paid to the NCPB as subsidy for purchase of fertiliser to be sold to farmers.

“However, apart from an invoice and schedule raised by NCPB, no verifiable documents were produced to confirm the quantity of fertiliser bought and receipted by NCPB, the quantity sold to farmers and the purchase and selling prices. Consequently, the propriety of the Sh2,129,128,557.70 expenditures on subsidised fertiliser charged to public funds could not be ascertained,” the report said.

PAC chairman Opiyo Wandaya said, “The reason given by accounting officers that farmers fill a green form to access the fertiliser and these forms were bulky and are kept at NCPB headquarters for inspection before subsidy is paid was not convincing,” Wandayi said.

 

Source: The Star