Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) has suspended chief executive officer (CEO) Foster Mulumbe and its director of operations in order to pave way for Admarc’s investigations into the maize procurement scandal.
At an extra-ordinary meeting on Sunday, the Admarc board resolved to send Mulumbe and director of operations Feckson Kantonga on suspension following recommendations by two commissions of inquiry which investigated the scandal.
“The meeting considered recommendations that were made by the commission of inquiry report and after consideration the board concluded and resolved that the two senior managers should proceed on suspension while the board is carrying out their own investigations on the recommendations,” said Admarc board chairperson James Masumbu.
Admarc’s investigations on the recommendations will be led by a special a special committee chaired by board member Ken Ndanga.
The special committee also includes three other board members and a representative each from the Department of Statutory Corporations, Department of Human Resource Management and Development, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development.
Masumbu said the committee has been given 18 days to produce a report to be discussed during a full board meeting scheduled for April 21.
Meanwhile, the board has appointed Admarc deputy CEO Margaret Roka-Mauwa as acting CEO.
Speaking on the suspension, co-chairperson of the Joint Parliamentary Commission of inquiry Joseph Chidanti Malunga said it did not make sense for the Admarc bosses to continue working while other investigations are going on. Over the past months, Admarc has been at the centre of a scandal in which some of its bosses were accused of conspiring to steal taxpayers’ money by buying 100,000 metric tonnes of maize from Zambia using a middleman.
