Clear the Subsidy Mess

Although the farm input subsidy coupons have already started being distributed, it seems there are still some anomalies in the programme. Up to now, to a certain extent, the programme appears to have brought so many divisions, doubts and complications among Malawians.

Since the good gesture came onto the scene, it has been rocked with corruption and mismanagement subsequently ending up benefiting the wrong people while those for whom it was meant cry foul. Of course, it is likely that every new system that is being introduced may involve some anomalies, but these anomalies are supposed to be a stepping-stone for the betterment of the system.

Hence, it is not normal to observe that four years or so after the subsidy programme was introduced, complaints from different quarters continue coming out as regards management of the system.

At one point, the clergy in Blantyre were given coupons which they were supposed to distribute to their faithful. Obviously, this should not be one of the objectives of the programme. It is clear that there are rules that govern the programme and no one would expect to find a rule that stipulates that the faithful are supposed to benefit from the programme.

If it is there, then it is totally misplaced! The whole thing appeared to be just a political move aimed at wooing the support of the faithful since that was prior to the last general elections. Otherwise, there is no other argument that can justify such an action.

But was whoever gave the clergy the coupons double-sure that they would be duly distributed to the faithful? The only problem in Malawi is that everything that is being done by, about or for politicians becomes political even if it was not naturally political at the onset.

That is why politics sometimes dominates events that have nothing to do with the same. Religious activities are politicized; funeral ceremonies are politicized; development programmes are politicized; everything in Malawi falls under politics.

Last year Bob Khamisa was accused of giving coupons to UDF’s Phillip Bwanali and the former minister was stripped of his position after the scandal was uncovered. But what would happen if the truth about Khamisa’s action remained underlying? Obviously it would be as though nothing happened at all!

And it should be the case that Khamisa was not the only one who was involved in that kind of scam. In fact it was revealed that cabinet ministers had been given a certain number of coupons which they were at liberty to give to whoever they desired.

It is obvious that those cabinet ministers who had estates used the coupons to buy subsidized farm inputs (which were meant for the poor) for their cash crops while the needy Malawian somewhere continued basking in the agony of poverty precipitated by hunger.

This should really be pathetic! Such is the irony of the farm input subsidy programme. Sometimes the richest has access to the same while the poorest continues crying foul.

Another big problem which has rocked the farm input subsidy programme is that of ghost villagers. It has been observed several times that village headmen include on the list of beneficiaries names of villagers who are non-existent, with the aim of embezzling farm input subsidy coupons which they would sell afterwards.

This is a very serious problem because it is theft by all means and must be dealt with as such. It is significant that everyone including traditional leaders and politicians and the clergy know who is supposed to benefit from the subsidized farm inputs.

If what government said at the very onset of the programme is anything to go by, the poor people are the ones who are supposed to benefit from the programme, (not politicians, village headmen or the clergy).

There are many other anomalies in the programme which cannot be exhausted. Somewhere some needy Malawians who were supposed to benefit from government’s subsidized farm inputs failed to do so because the inputs had run out at selling depots while the coupons were still with the beneficiaries who but never benefited.

This automatically begs the question of where the farm inputs, especially fertilizer, had gone when the quantity sold was supposed to be proportional to the number of coupons produced.

Therefore, it is incumbent upon government to clear the mess that is rocking the programme. It will smack of negligence and laxity on the part of government when Malawians see that the mess that was there when the subsidy programme was just being introduced is still there up to now, especially considering that President Bingu wa Mutharika admitted that the mess is indeed there.