The National Agriculture Quarantine and Inspection Authority (NAQIA) does not come under the Department of Agriculture and Livestock.
Managing director, Joel Alu, clarified the common misconception, saying NAQIA was established under the ‘National Agriculture Quarantine and Inspection Authority Act 1997’.
“We want budget appropriation,” he stated.
“The good thing is that the Medium-Term Development Strategy IV – that was recently launched – captures biosecurity. We are happy that there would be budget appropriation through that document. Before the previous budget policy document, NAQIA was never captured because everybody thought that we were under DAL.
“When you look at the NAQIA Act 1997, NAQIA is a separate bio-authority. But because people at the Department of Finance or Treasury perceived that we were under DAL, they were trying to fund us through DAL. And when it was funded through DAL, we got nothing.
“But under the current policy that was recently launched, there is a huge funding for biosecurity.
“We are happy that biosecurity has been recognised.”
Alu pointed out that NAQIA has never been funded until recently.