Minister of National Unity Timothy Mtambo and Youth Minister Richard Chimwendo Banda have been implicated in the MK 30 billion Affordable Input Program (AIP) ‘dubious’ deal.
Chief Executive Officer for Smallholder Farmers Fertilizer Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM), Richard Chikunkhuzeni has told a joint parliamentary committee that the two were part of the team that went to South Africa to discuss the ‘dubious’ fertilizer procurement deal with a UK-based butcher.
Mtambo and Chimwendo were part of the delegation to discuss fertilizer deal despite them not being experts in that field.
According to Chikunkhuzeni the decision for them to be part of the trip was made by the ministerial taskforce and not the SFFRFM.
Last week, President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera conceded that government had lost $725 000 (about K750 million) in the botched AIP fertilizer supply deal involving a United Kingdom-based company.
Chakwera, who fired the then Minister of Agriculture Lobin Lowe, described the fertilizer transaction as illegal as it flouted procurement procedures and hinted at further changes to his Cabinet.
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