Acting Secretary for Agriculture, Stephen Mombi has wasted no time in fixing the rot which he described as “a chronic disease” in the department.
Mombi has outlined his plans to bail the department out of its miseries via a well-articulated power point presentation before a packed-to-capacity conference room in a meeting recently with DAL staff.
DAL, the department which the National Government has entrusted to drive the “economy recovery” agenda for the country has been rocked by scandals and fraud and misappropriation of K22.7 million of public funds recently.
Mombi’s predecessor, Daniel Kombuk has been suspended last week by Cabinet on allegations relating to this ‘unauthorised’ expenditure.
Cabinet have tasked Mombi to investigate expenditure in the department in 2019, 2020 and 2021 especially the K24 million paid to individuals which contravened warrant instructions from the Treasury department.
But the stigmatism on the DAL could be traced back to 2015 (before the time of Mombi and Kombuk) when “paper farmers” walked off with K200 million of funds without trace and any prosecution to date.
“We are currently operating under a system that has a culture of fraud, deception, greed and grand thievery and out-right stealing that is embedded in a compromised, contaminated and corrupted operational environment.
“How do we correct this type of environment? Apply discipline and honesty and restore integrity.
“Nobody is indispensible. I demand nothing less than 100 per cent commitment to ourselves, our families, our clan and tribe, the department and the Government of the day.”