MPs grill Defence officials over Shs21 billion maize project shortfall
Members of Parliament on Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have quizzed officials from the Ministry of Defence over the Shs1.7 million spent on producing a single acre of maize.
Some MPs argue that ordinary Ugandans spend around Shs500,000 to produce an acre of maize.
The latest Auditor General’s report revealed that the Ministry of Defence injected Shs21.769 billion into the said project, and promised to generate revenue from sales of harvest worth Shs37.968 billion, but only Shs9 billion was realized, with MPs wondering why the army just didn’t buy the food from farmers directly.
Francis Ngabirano, Under Secretary Logistics at the Ministry of Defence informed the Committee that the food and feed programme was an emergency response to the food and security threats and blamed the poor performance on late planting that commenced in September, which resulted in less acreage planted and maize yield loss of about 25%.
“The projected cost for producing maize by Ministry of Agriculture was Shs1,590,000 and the actual cost per acre was Shs1,750,000 giving a balance of Shs165,000. For soy bean the Ministry of Agriculture projected the cost to be at Shs1,359,000 and the actual cost was Shs1,556,000 with a difference of Shs197,000,” said Ngabirano.
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