allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Agric Ministry Diverts N10 Billion Rice Levy, Senate Says (Page 1 of 1)

The Senate Ad-Hoc Committee on Food Crisis yesterday faulted the Ministry of Agriculture over the N10.5 billion Special Allocation for grain procurement as strategic food reserve of the federation.

Speaking during the Investigative Hearing at the National Assembly Complex, committee chairman Senator Idris Umar Audu (PDP, Gombe Central) said the ministry has to explain the whereabouts of N10.5 billion Special Allocation meant for grain procurement from 1999 to 2008.

The committee was also apprehensive of the disparity between the budgetary allocation of N1.3 billion for grain procurement during the period under probe and the N10.5 billion as Special Allocation.

Consultant to the panel Mr. Tony Ochei Emmanuel said, "This committee is curious that you received N1.3 billion as budgetary allocation between 1999 and 2008 for grain procurement but got N10.5 Billion as Special Fund."

In his explanation, Permanent Secretary of the Agriculture Ministry Professor Oladapo Afolabi said the fund was sourced from the rice levy and that it was utilized for the procurement of grain stored in the strategic reserve.

Senator Audu however queried that explanation, saying, "This is Internally Generated Revenue and it is supposed to be remitted to the Federation's treasury. It is unconstitutional for you to just use it for grain procurement." The committee also said no ordinary Nigerian received grain from the Strategic Reserve during the period of rising cost of food commodities in the country.

Apparently unhappy that the list of beneficiaries of grain releases for 2008 contains no ordinary citizens, Chairman of the Senate panel Senator Audu said the distribution by the ministry was grossly unfair to the common man.

He said, "No ordinary Nigerian benefited from the grain releases in our records. If we are serious, let us be serious because the list does not show that the real end users are the beneficiaries. We should not be sitting here in Abuja and apply for grains, when the masses of the people who need it most cannot access it."

The list presented to the Senate shows that grain from the strategic reserve was supplied to traditional rulers, politicians, influential individuals, poultry farms and milling companies.

In his explanation to the committee, the Permanent Secretary Professor Afolabi said some individuals and traditional rulers made requests on behalf of their people. "The states gave us assurances that the grains will reach the grass roots," he said. Out of 71,000 metric tones of grain in the strategic reserve for 2008, 65,755 have been distributed, of which the Senate panel said none was directly received by the targeted less privileged Nigerians.

The committee also faulted the ministry's grain procurement policy, which according to them violates the principle of due process as contracts for supply were done secretly, without advertising or transparent bidding.

"We have noticed that the grain procurement violates due process because you don't advertise. Only few people are allowed to apply. This is like the old military way where people apply arbitrarily."

However, Minister for State Agriculture and Water Resources Chief Ademola Rasaq Seriki said the strategy of non-advertisement of grain procurement was to forestall increase in prices because "Whenever there is advertisement, people will begin to jerk up the price. But for those people that usually supply, they know themselves and they have their warehouses. We buy secretly to avoid prices from going up. That is the system we met."

"The public Procurement Act does not envisage any difference in procurement. What you are doing violates the provision of the procurement act," Senator Idris Audu said.

Permanent Secretary Prof. Oladapo said, "The first objective is actually to stabilize prices and not to allow prices to rise in the market. If we advertise, you find that there is a natural jump in price because you have created demand. It is to prevent this that we buy silently."

A member of the Senate panel, Senator Suleiman Adokwe (PDP, Nasarawa) said the ministry has allowed suppliers to shortchange farmers by keeping the deal secret saying.

"The farmer needs to know the minimum price. Anything that you are going to do that will not allow the farmers to know the price will be defeated."

Another member, Senator Andrew Gbenga Babalola (PDP, Oyo) urged the ministry to embark on its proposed Guaranteed Minimum Price (GMP) policy saying, "You should set a minimum price and advertise. If you do so no supplier can go beyond the price. Let the farmers know the price."

On fertilizer procurement and distribution for the current farming season, the Senate panel also faulted the agriculture ministry over the N64 billion contracts to Tak Continental Limited, Lagos, Superphosphate Fertilizer Company, Kaduna and Golden Fertilizer Limited, Lagos.

The committee said the three firms lack the capacity to procure the required 660,000 metric ones of fertilizer for the farming season saying, "Their combined capacity is half of the quantity."

The panel therefore summoned the three companies to appear before it on Monday to explain their position. Officials of the Agric Ministry told the Senate panel that the required grain reserve capacity for the country is 2.5 million Metric Tones as against the present 300,000 Metric Tones capacity.

web allafrica.com	Enter your search terms	Submit search form
OR subscribers use AllAfrica's premium search engine

Relevant Links

Relevant Links

Food and Agriculture

at a Glance

Today's Most Active Stories