Why We Have Shortages and High Prices of Mealie Meal

In November last year, Government directed the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to with immediate effect provide millers with maize grain in view of the limited availability of the grain on the market.
The FRA was to make available the maize grain to millers up to 30th April, 2016 at K80.00 per 50kg bag or K1,700 per metric ton.

In a ministerial statement to Parliament, Agriculture Minister Given Lubinda said under this programme the FRA was to enter into legally binding contracts with millers that were interested to participate in the programme.

Mr. Lubinda further clarified that this programme was however voluntary and therefore millers were free to either participate in the programme or not.

He added that millers who were to participate in this programme and sign contracts with the FRA were to maintain their wholesale price of mealie meal at not more than K70 per 25kg bag for breakfast meal and not more than K55 per 25 kg bag for roller meal, while maize bran were not to exceed K30 per 25kg bag.

He further stated that millers were to continue to allow retailers to maintain a retail margin of not more than K5 per 25kg bag of the mentioned maize products.

Mr. Lubinda also clarified that millers that were to access maize grain from the FRA under this program were not to be allowed to export maize and mealie meal as this programme was meant to benefit Zambians, assuring that a strict monitoring mechanism had been put in place to ensure that the Millers followed the agreed upon regulation.

The Ministerial statement in Parliament by the Honourable Minister of Agriculture created the basis upon which The Food Reserve Agency Management formulated their Maize Sales Modalities which emphasised that the Agency would strictly sale its maize stocks to Millers only.

The Agency further obtained and published the List of Millers registered with the Millers Association of Zambia.

OUR INVESTIGATIONS

Following numerous reports and complaints of price increases and shortages of Mealie Meal across the country, we decided to launch independent investigations into the matter. We are here today to present our findings of the same.

OUR FINDINGS

Members of the press, distinguished invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, the Food Reserve Agency has sold a total of about 720,000 Metric Tonnes of Maize from the 1st of November 2015 to date valued at more than K1.2 Billion.

Currently, our country’s average maize consumption stands at 100,000 Metric Tonnes per month.
The 720,000 MT has been released by the Food Reserve Agency over a period of 6 months meaning therefore that ordinarily, the country should not be experiencing any food shortages at the moment.

Further, and since ALL Millers in the country are currently using stocks from the Food Reserve Agency, at subsidized prices, there should have been no price hikes especially in view of the minister’s assurances that once maize has been accessed from the FRA, prices would not be more than K70 and K55 for a 25kg bag of breakfast and roller meal respectively.

However, our investigations have also revealed that other than Millers, The Food Reserve Agency sold some of its maize to private companies.

We believe this maize was not consumed locally but rather exported. This is of grave concern to us because it proves a deviation from government policy as announced by the Honourable Minister of Agriculture in parliament as well as from the maize sales modalities.

The policy and modalities clearly specified and emphasised that the FRA would ONLY sale its stocks in the RESERVES to Millers for the BENEFITS of the citizens. Further, we also discovered that these maize sales to private companies were being sold at the same subsidized prices of K1,700 per Metric Tonne.

For whose benefits? We got reports that some of the maize being exported have margins as high as more K1000.00 per tonne such that a company that purchased 25,000 MT worth of maize from the FRA would make K25 Million in profits.

This same margin of K1,000.00 plus is the other reason behind the price increases.

Even genuine millers are made to part away with more money than the official FRA price. This money goes into private hands but eventually increases the cost of production which is passed on to the poor consumers.

Because the minister knows about this corruption, he has been inept to push the prices down or how else does he convince the millers otherwise?

Given the fact that more than 720,000 MT has so far been sold by FRA, and a margin of K1,000 per MT is being charged dubiously, we can reasonably estimate that a total amount of K720,000,000 (720 Million or K720 Billion unrebased) has gone into people’s pockets instead of the national confers.

This is the worst kind of corruption ever which directly subjects the masses to more poverty by the fact that they eventually have to pay this money through the increased mealie meal prices.
For the avoidance of any doubt, we have provided a schedule of companies that we suspect are not millers and all the transactions they have had with the Agency to date.

OUR CONCLUSIONS

Without any doubt, ladies and gentlemen, it is our conclusion that the people of Zambia have been subjected to mealie meal shortages and price increases due to the rampant corruption going on in the Maize Sales at the Food Reserve Agency involving the Ministry of Agriculture and FRA management.

Who authorised and approved the issuance of the maize to private companies? Why wasn’t the involvement of the private companies open to other interested players (commodity traders) so as to provide transparency? And why was the sale of the stocks to private companies subsidized? The answer is simple – CORRUPTION!

Ladies and Gentlemen, some so called milling companies participating in this program are only conduits to syphon maize out of the FRA.

This maize once collected from the FRA never goes into milling but rather sold to grain traders who in return have been exporting the same.

We came across reports of FRA maize being rebagged and some where even intercepted by the FRA security personnel.

Sadly, further reports reveals that some uncompromising FRA security staff even lost their jobs for being so vigilant against illegal maize sales vices involving very high profile officials.

This has instilled a lot of fear in other staff who cannot do the right thing fearing the mighty king, Chola Kafwabulula, who has built an empire within the Food Reserve Agency, recruiting and promoting his relatives/tribesmen, as his blue eyed boys, to critical key positions in order to enhance his personal interests.

Members of staff and other stakeholders literally pay homage to him, the mighty king of FRA.
You may wish to know that the FRA has not had a board for the past one year now.

This situation seems to be ideal for the minister and his officials as they have direct supervision over FRA.

His Permanent Secretary is the one performing the duties of the FRA Board. And what do you expect? They are definitely enjoying the benefits.

Genuine millers have attributed the shortage of mealie meal on the market due to the rationing of the stocks by the FRA whereby millers can only pick a restricted quantity per month meanwhile these private players get unlimited quantities, as much as 25,000MT at a go.

Surely, there can never be worse organized crimes than this one. We have people in these offices masquerading as professionals but are the worst mafias of our time whose daily occupation is to enrich themselves leaving the masses of our people die of starvation.

The Minister of Agriculture knows what has been going on.

His Permanent Secretary is fully aware of this. The FRA Executive Director is at the center of this.
These people must be made to account for their actions and we demand for their immediate suspension to pave way for further investigations.

As we stated in our background to this statement, Minister Lubinda assured parliament that a strict monitoring mechanism had been put in place to ensure that the Millers followed the agreed upon regulations.

Now we ask, which monitoring mechanism was put in place when it is him and his officials, both at his ministry and at FRA that went against the agreed upon regulations as announced by himself in parliament as well as documented by the FRA?

Had that mechanism been there, all participants would have been held accountable.
For instance, how does the minister and his officials know that the maize from FRA equals the output from the millers?

And that all the output from the millers is sold locally? If we asked millers for their returns, would we be in a position to ascertain that production equals maize collected from the FRA?

This is the mechanism that the minister should be talking about but does he and his officials care???

Ladies and gentlemen, it is painfully heart breaking to see how much of the tax payers’ monies this government is spending on the FRA and how instead only a few individuals are enriching themselves in return.

Strategically the Executive Director has entrusted the responsibility of contract management to his inner circle, appointing a Mr. Andrew Chewe as Chairperson of the Maize Sales Committee working hand in hand with a Ms. Bubala Chibbonta.

The ED is said to have personally handpicked Mr. Chewe from the Nchito brothers’ law firm and he equally brought in the lady after she was dismissed from her employment at Ministry of Justice, awarding her perks for those in a grade higher than hers.

He crushes any employee perceived to be standing in his way.

We are being attempted to another conclusion to the effect that it is either the presidency is being grossly undermined and the President himself is aware but deliberately giving the vice a blind eye or indeed and unfortunately so equally involved in the maize sales scams.

Where are intelligence officials who should be telling the President the truth about what is causing the shortages of Mealie Meal?

Who is lying to the President about opposition political parties being behind the smuggling of maize when it is his Minister and officials dishing out the country’s strategic reserves like father Christmases?

It is his name these characters are using to intimidate everyone around.

After milking the FRA, we now have a sugar coated operation to ascertain the actual maize stocks in the country under the very supervision of the people suspected to be at the helm of looting.
Who is fooling who here? How are these measures being introduced now after all the maize has already been exported?

You will all recall that it was just last week when my elder brother GBM hulled insults on me and even bragged that he had more than 5,000MT worth of maize ready for export.

Now ask me where GBM is getting his maize from? FRA! Just last week on the 15th of April, The FRA had given his GBM group of companies more than 1,000MT knowing very well that GBM is involved in maize exports. Records show that GBM group of companies has accessed more than 10,000MT from the FRA.

How does one distinguish the maize GBM is exporting from the one he is getting from the FRA?
Where are the investigative wings of this country?

Where is the Anti-Corruption Commission when there is daylight robbery of the country’s little resources? Where is the Drug Enforcement Commission when monies are being laundered in day light?

Where is the Secretary to the Treasury who should be more concerned about how the national treasury is depleted meanwhile a few characters are milking from the FRA big time?

SUSPECTED ABUSE OF AUTHORITY BY FRA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Whilst carrying our investigations, we came across information which alarmed our thinking. It may appear that other people in this country do not see the suffering of the masses.

The FRA ED is entitled to one personal to holder motor vehicle and another utility vehicle.

He is entitled to buying his personal to holder upon separation or after 3 years of using it.

On 13th May 2013, a VX V8 Land Cruiser reg number ALK 9484 was bought for K1,050,000 which he caused the Human Resource Coordinator to offer to him in December 2015 without any approvals from his superiors.

Worse still, the ED directed Procurement and Finance staff to pre-sales order and pay for a state of the art, tailor made Toyota VX 2016 Model Reg BAC 8676 which was paid for in October 2015 way before his official vehicle was due for replacement.

The cost was K1,526,865 without duties and other taxes.

This vehicle was delivered to him in March.

Wow, 6 months of assembling it to his specifications!

Our investigations equally revealed that no appropriate authorisation was sought from his superiors.
And the vehicle is registered in his personal name. HOW SURELY CAN GOVERNMENT PROPERTY BE REGISTERED IN A AN INDIVIDUAL’s PERSONAL NAME AS THE OWNER???HOW??

As though the above suspected irregularities are not enough, the ED decided to increase the fleet of his then only utility vehicle- Ford Ranger Limited edition which was bought for him in June 2013.
He directed procurement staff to find a way of buying a Ford Ranger-Wild Track costing about K620,000. They did – Reg BAC 6284.

He only used the car for two weeks and the latest 2016 Ford Ranger-Wild Track model was launched.
He dumped the vehicle which was purchased for him and directed that the latest model be procured instead and his ‘yes bwana’ boys did the job. The vehicle costed the Agency K656,241Reg BAC 8251.
On top of all these vehicles, the Agency bought latest JEEP GRAND CHEROKE vehicles costing about K800,000 each for its senior managers and one had to be included under the disguise of being a Board Vehicle when in the actual sense it is the ED who is using it – RegALZ 6199.

And this is the country’s food reserve agency, a non-profit making organisation being funded by you, the tax payers, and this abuse of the country’s resources is being done at a time when the country is talking about fiscal discipline in the administration of government’s budget.

Mr. Secretary to the Treasury, where are you to rescue this country please?

We feel these resources being expended on one person which if you just sum the total cost of vehicles amounts to K4,653,106 (K4.7Million or K4.7Billion unrebased) within a period of 2 years whilst we have a long list of pensioners waiting to be paid or better still could have been used on social amenities that our poverty stricken masses desperately are in need of.

And when the farmers cry foul that the Agency has delayed paying them for their produce, will the same ED plead with them for patience? We can only wait and see but certainly not with this kind of greedy!

Right now, we are hearing reports of Zambian Transport Companies laying off employees because the FRA has not paid them their dues since October last year.

FRA transporters are owed more than K120 Million. But we have an Executive Director spending all these monies on himself from the very tax payers who are being laid off.

Does this Chola Kafwabulula have a heart?

Does he sleep peacefully in the night? And if the maize being exported was sold commercially, wouldn’t the FRA have raised enough resources to pay their dues to transporters and other service providers?

Even some daily casual workers’ wages take too long to pay. They are currently in arrears! Anyway, we are still investigating more corruption in the award of these transport contracts and we also want to hear from the Anti-Corruption Commission on how far they have gone with investigations of the FRA ED and his dealings with transporters such as Time Trucking and others.

We shall be back.

OUR DEMANDS

Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see, we endeavoured to do what we could within our constrained means. After doing our work, we demand that:

1. His Excellency the President, Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu should take interest in these matters and save the Zambian people from further sufferings caused by his officials. Surely, appropriate action needs to be taken here sir.

The FRA ED himself is said to be enjoying a cordial relationship with you sir hence bragging that he is untouchable and hence committing these wrongs with impunity.

Infact, let me challenge the President to come out clean on this either by using his Executive powers to suspend or fire his appointees mentioned in this saga so that law enforcement agencies can do independent investigations freely.

2. Members of Parliament should revisit the Minister’s statement and ask him why subsidized maize meant for Zambians was being exported.

3. The Investigative and security wings have now been given the necessary information to do their work. We already have some reports of how the FRA ED is corruptly abusing some officers from DEC/ACC/Police using his security boy to cover up some maize scandals as well as senior government and party officials who are busy eating with him.

4. The Ministry of Finance should equally investigate the utilization of the maize subsidy. Our report clearly indicates abuse which should be of grave concern to them especially in view of the economic challenges the country is currently facing. Even the so called audit that was conducted by PS Shawa and Minister Lubinda was just face saving despite knowing and being part of what is happening.

5. Zambians must demand for justice. It is said that us Zambians forget easily. Are you also going to forget this one very easily?

We thank you.

Chilufya Tayali
Executive Director
ZAMBIAN VOICE