The meeting which Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development scheduled to hold to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of the Farm Input Subsidy Programme(Fisp) has failed due to lack of funds.
The meeting was prompted by opinion of some quarters of the society who are urging government to abolish the programme due to mismanagement.
Chairperson of the committee Joseph Chidanti Malunga confirmed that the meeting will not take place this week because donors that the committee relied on for funding have not come forward.
Malunga said the failure to hold the meeting means the committee has been stopped from performing its oversight role.
“We have not been able to go ahead with the meeting because no donor has come forward to fund us. We are still negotiating with the donors as to when they are going to release the funds but as far as this week is concerned, there will not be such meeting.
“We had a list of donors; some of them work with us directly while others are operating as proxy. Civil Society Agriculture Network is one of the donors we work with directly. The challenge is that there will be a pile up of issues because we wanted to dispose Fisp and look into other matters,” Malunga said.
National Secretary for Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, Martin Chiphwanya described the failure to hold the meeting as a missed opportunity.
He said the parliamentary committee plays a crucial role in ensuring that there is transparency and accountability in the way resources are managed in the agriculture sector.
“As you are aware, Fisp has been riddled with so many issues and this would have been an opportunity for members of parliament to look into those issues and see how best they can be tackled,” Chiphwanya, said.
Executive Director of Church and Society of Livingstonia Synod of the CCAP, Moses Mkandawire, urged the government to provide the committee with resources because it is not ideal to rely on donors on critical issues.
“Treasury should have financially supported Parliament on important issues like Fisp because we did not accept democracy on the parameters of donors,” Mkandawire said.
The committee is expecting to raise about K15 million for the meeting.
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