MPs attack agriculture ministry on idle funds
Sep 05, 2007
MPs have criticised the Ministry of Agriculture for failure to utilise loans secured for agricultural projects. This was after the chairperson of the committee on agriculture, Deus Bikwasizehi, reported that the life-span of a number of the projects initiated by the ministry had either expired befor
By Vision Reporters
MPs have criticised the Ministry of Agriculture for failure to utilise loans secured for agricultural projects. This was after the chairperson of the committee on agriculture, Deus Bikwasizehi, reported that the life-span of a number of the projects initiated by the ministry had either expired before kicking off or being fully implemented, leaving billions of shillings of donor funds unutilised.
He told the House chaired by Speaker Edward Ssekandi, that the ministry agrees with donors to co-fund projects but sometimes takes long or fails to meet its contractual funding obligations.
The MPs were discussing the report on the ministry’s policy statement for the 2007/08 financial year.
Tororo county MP Geofrey Ekanya said: “The report of the committee on the status of the unimplemented projects indicates serious negligence of duty by the ministry officials. We have billions of shillings unutilised yet livestock are dying every other day. What is the problem?â€
He challenged the agriculture minister, Hillary Onek, to present to the House a status performance report of each project and officials responsible for them in order to ascertain how serious those officers were in implementing the projects.
One of the projects cited is the national livestock productivity improvement scheme jointly funded by the Government and the African Development Bank to a tune of $29.6m for five years.
The project was supposed to run from 2005 in 29 districts. However, it has not been fully implemented because of the bureaucracy from the Government.
Another five-year project co-funded by the Government and the bank aimed at supporting fisheries development has not taken off.
The project was supposed to develop 30 modern fish landing sites but only one site has been completed. The other sites will be completed after the project ends.
The Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Prof. Ogenga Latigo said: “The Government should know that if it makes agriculture work, the opposition would never take over from them. We need to think about agriculture more seriously than we are doing now.â€
The MPs also noted that although the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) had received a hundred percent of the required budgetary allocations, its performance was poor.
“There are a lot of gaps in their services,†noted Kitgum MP Beatrice Anywar.
MPs have criticised the Ministry of Agriculture for failure to utilise loans secured for agricultural projects. This was after the chairperson of the committee on agriculture, Deus Bikwasizehi, reported that the life-span of a number of the projects initiated by the ministry had either expired before kicking off or being fully implemented, leaving billions of shillings of donor funds unutilised.
He told the House chaired by Speaker Edward Ssekandi, that the ministry agrees with donors to co-fund projects but sometimes takes long or fails to meet its contractual funding obligations.
The MPs were discussing the report on the ministry’s policy statement for the 2007/08 financial year.
Tororo county MP Geofrey Ekanya said: “The report of the committee on the status of the unimplemented projects indicates serious negligence of duty by the ministry officials. We have billions of shillings unutilised yet livestock are dying every other day. What is the problem?â€
He challenged the agriculture minister, Hillary Onek, to present to the House a status performance report of each project and officials responsible for them in order to ascertain how serious those officers were in implementing the projects.
One of the projects cited is the national livestock productivity improvement scheme jointly funded by the Government and the African Development Bank to a tune of $29.6m for five years.
The project was supposed to run from 2005 in 29 districts. However, it has not been fully implemented because of the bureaucracy from the Government.
Another five-year project co-funded by the Government and the bank aimed at supporting fisheries development has not taken off.
The project was supposed to develop 30 modern fish landing sites but only one site has been completed. The other sites will be completed after the project ends.
The Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Prof. Ogenga Latigo said: “The Government should know that if it makes agriculture work, the opposition would never take over from them. We need to think about agriculture more seriously than we are doing now.â€
The MPs also noted that although the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) had received a hundred percent of the required budgetary allocations, its performance was poor.
“There are a lot of gaps in their services,†noted Kitgum MP Beatrice Anywar.