GMB owes farmers US $6 million for 2008 grain

26 February 2010, The Herald
URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/201002250067.html

Harare:   The Grain Marketing Board owes farmers US$6 million for grain delivered in 2008. The amount is the Zimbabwe dollar equivalent of what farmers were supposed to have been paid.

Appearing before Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Agriculture yesterday, GMB general manager Mr Albert Mandizha said the parastatal had approached its parent ministry to get the money from Treasury.  He said no funds had been released to cover the debt.

Mr Mandizha said GMB had only received funds to pay farmers who delivered grain after the introduction of the multi-currency system. "We have requested that these farmers who delivered their maize be paid using the current US$265 being paid to other farmers. We have also written to our parent ministry who have forwarded the request to the Ministry of Finance but no response has been forthcoming.  The Ministry of Finance has not spelt out what is going to happen to those farmers who had paid for their inputs."

Mr Mandizha said Government's US$210 million inputs loan facility was under-funded.  "The money that was made available was less than 25 percent (of what was needed). "The resources were not there. About US$40 million was made available out of the $110 million pledged for the first phase of the $210 million loan facility," he said.

Mr Mandizha said GMB had a bloated staff and needed to reduce it by half. He said in past drought seasons GMB had hired many people who are now redundant and would be retrenched when funds became available.

"We need to reduce staff by half, more than 1 200 to avoid idle staff. We already have a plan for a leaner structure. We tried voluntary retirement but there was a one percent response so we need money for retrenchment. We can't just tell them to go," he said.

He said GMB was receiving claims from foreign firms that sold grain to Zimbabwe during the drought seasons. "The issue is now being handled by the Ministry of Finance who are verifying the claims," he said.

He said there was need to recapitalise the parastatal in order for it to fully discharge its mandate.