Govt secretly bails out Admarc

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Admarc Malawi

Malawi Government has settled local loans that Agriculture Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) obtained to buy maize.

An amount of K23 billion is said to have been released from the treasury to pay local commercial banks where Admarc borrowed money to buy 98,000 metric tonnes of maize.

Nkhotakota South East lawmaker Andrew Mwale demanded government’s explanation through the ministry of finance on why it has approved the money in secret.

Parliament
The issue was discussed in parliament.

Mwale questioned the ministry of finance for paying the money to the ministry of agriculture, irrigation and water development to settle Admarc loans without approval of Parliament.

Responding on the matter, finance minister Goodall Gondwe said he was ready to inform lawmakers on the payment of money to Admarc for loan settlement.

He added that the money was less than K23 billion that was mentioned in Parliament on Thursday.

Gondwe has since blamed Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee’s (MVAC) report that disclosed that half of Malawi’s population was to face hunger due to poor harvest saying government lost billions of money to pay the loans because of the report.

Admarc is also reported to have obtained loans from international banks to buy enough maize for the starving population that the MVAC report mentioned.