By Isaac Zulu
Patriot Front chairman for information and publicity Raphael Nakachinda has charged that the UPND administration wants to pursue the route of single sourcing in the procurement and distribution of farming inputs.
And Nakachinda has refused to respond to assertions by PF member Fabian Mutale to the effect that president Edgar Lungu has secretly appointed him as acting secretary general, saying doing so would be giving credence to a person who “possibly does not exist in the party structures.”
In an interview, Nakachinda said that the UPND government has started distributing farming inputs in phases because they hit a snag and now want to pursue the route of single sourcing.
He said that the UPND administration has embarked on a scheme to cancel contracts for companies engaged in the procurement of fertilizer under the Farmer Input Support Programme, saying this is a ploy to replace them with their own preferred companies.
“They have failed to flag off the distribution of fertilizer to all Provinces because they are not ready and they want to cancel contracts for certain companies that were engaged in the distribution of farming inputs so that they can pick on their preferred companies,” Nakachinda said. “The real thing is that there’s a scheme to cancel some of the contracts that they have already signed and they have hit a snag and now want to pursue a route of single sourcing. It is quite disastrous.”
The Patriot Front member of central committee expressed worry that if the situation is not addressed, the country might face food insecurity.
“We are going to have another farming season where farming inputs will be poorly distributed, which will also negatively affect the farm produce; thereby entrenching food insecurity in the country.”
And Nakachinda refused to respond to assertions by PF member Fabian Mutale to the effect that former president Edgar Lungu has secretly appointed him to serve as acting secretary general, saying that doing so would be giving credence to a person who probably does not exist in the party structures.”
“I don’t know that Fabian Mutale. He is a member from where? Awe naiwe…uko kunsebanya (No… that is tantamount to embarrassing me). I cannot be responding to a person who doesn’t probably exist in the party structures,” said Nakachinda.
