Police in Mponela – Dowa, have arrested a Chipiku Stores Branch Manager at Bowe Trading Centre for allegedly selling cheap farm inputs under government’s Affordable Inputs Program (AIP) at prices higher than the recommended ones.
The suspect has been identified as Hanania Kaonga Nkhoma 40, of Msampha Village, T/A Dzoole in Dowa.
Mponela police publicist Inspector Kaitano Lubrino said Bowe Chipiku Stores Branch commenced its sale of the cheap farm inputs on Monday, November 2, 2020.
However, people were surprised to note that the prices at which these inputs were being sold were higher than what were recommended by the government.
“Kaonga was selling a 50Kg bag of fertilizer at K5500 instead of the recommended price of K4,495.
“It is also alleged that the manager was selling a 5kg pack of maize seed at K3,000 instead of the recommended K2,000,” said Lubrino.
Lubrino added that the issue was brought to light when beneficiaries who went to purchase the commodities started protesting after they learnt that the officials were selling the inputs at higher prices.
“This was discovered after over seven people had already purchased the inputs at the said prices,” he added.
Police came in quickly and arrested the manager and K18,000 has been recovered so far.
Meanwhile the police would like to assure Malawians that it is strictly monitoring the implementation of the program and it has put in place robust measures to ensure that it runs smoothly.
