Just days after dismissing opposition concerns as “noise,” Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha has announced that an investigation is underway into claims of attempts to defraud the government’s flood relief programme.
As a result, Mustapha has said there has been a delay in payouts in some regions.
“This is not what we wanted to do but until we get to the bottom of this, we cannot continue in some regions. Both the farmers and the officers responsible for carrying out the assessment have to be honest and held accountable. When people are dishonest and we have these things occurring, we have to go back and correct them. Because of these claims, we have to review and redo some areas which are resulting in delays in the entire process but we have to ensure things are done the right way,” Mustapha was quoted as saying by the Agriculture Ministry on Wednesday.
The ministry reported Mustapha as saying that an investigation is underway, although it was not clear who is leading it. The report said it was prompted by claims in several flood-affected regions that persons who did not suffer losses as a result of the May-June flooding are nonetheless listed to receive assistance from the government.
Attempts by this newspaper to contact Mustapha were unsuccessful.
According to the ministry, Mustapha said should any discrepancies be found, those persons improperly listed for aid will not receive anything. He also said since the ministry’s extension officers, who were tasked with conducting the verification to compile the lists of those affected, would be made answerable if it is found that persons who didn’t suffer losses names were included.
“When this process commenced, I made it very clear that anyone found guilty of malpractices or “padding the list” so to speak would be dealt with. We also made an appeal to farmers to be honest because this is taxpayers’ monies we are dealing with and we cannot be reckless but it seems as though persons didn’t heed to our warning and now we have to take a step back to carry out an investigation to see if there is any truth to these allegations,” he said.
On Sunday, the Department of Public Information reported Mustapha as dismissing opposition criticisms of the flood relief programme as “noise.”
Meanwhile, the ministry said Mustapha pointed out that persons have been making allegations but have not provided any evidence to support their claims. “There are a number of persons who are making allegations that some people on the list should not receive payments. As Minister of Agriculture, I welcome any information but I will need evidence so that we can deal with it. Many times, people are saying persons are not entitled but when we ask for the names, the persons making the allegations do not have the evidence. Similar allegations were being made on social media recently. I sent the entire leadership of NAREI to investigate those claims but they didn’t find any evidence to support such. I agree that we must have proper accountability and transparency. Once the allegations are made, we need the evidence to handle those persons accordingly because this relief is intended for persons who suffered losses in the rice, cash crop, and livestock sector,” Mustapha said.
Persons who have information or queries about the ongoing flood relief exercise are asked to contact the Ministry of Agriculture on 223-7291.
President Irfaan Ali had announced relief grants in excess of $7 billion, including $3.5 billion in payouts to those in the agriculture sector who had suffered losses in floods. Homestead farmers will receive $100,000, those with kitchen gardens $50,000 each, and other households $50,000 each. The rice sector has been allocated a total of $3.2 billion while livestock farmers are to receive financial assistance of $600 million.
Payouts have been made in regions Six, Five, Ten and are due to continue this weekend in Region Two. “Some of the regions we’ll have to go back because there were a number of queries that we have to sort out. Also, persons who were not captured in the first instance, have now been captured, verified, and their information was sent to the Ministry of Finance for cheques to be prepared,” Mustapha said on Wednesday.
