Johannesburg – A R20-million agriculture master plan that forms an integral part of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s economic growth strategy is marred by delays due to allegations of irregularities in its production.
In his third state of the nation address in June 2019, Ramaphosa announced that the government was going to substantially expand the agriculture and agro-processing sector by supporting key value chains and products, developing new markets and reducing reliance on agricultural imports.
The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development was supposed to draft agriculture and agro-processing master plan (AAMP) to implement Ramaphosa’s plan.
Sunday World can reveal that the plan has been marred by delays due to irregularities that were identified. The agriculture department tasked one of its entities, the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) to produce the master plan.
The NAMC was supposed to coordinate consultations with all stakeholders, including provincial and local government, labour and civil society to get their inputs and to undertake market assessments, among other responsibilities.
But an internal report by NAMC’s risk and compliance unit, dated February 1 2021, has blown the whistle on irregularities in the appointment of service providers to produce the AAMP. According to the preliminary investigation, the procurement process violated tender processes and there were conflicts of interest and threats to members of the adjudication team.
“The threat to the life of officials in executing their responsibilities becomes critical that it be attended to and be dealt with, and that any employee of the NAMC who makes a disclosure on the threat to his or her role in executing his responsibilities be afforded protection taken from the budgetary allowance,” the report says.
According to the report, the Agriculture Department had transferred R20-million to the NAMC.
The money was meant to have been used to execute the agriculture and agro-processing master plan for a five-year period.
“To date, the money has been spent on certain attributes which such payments may be irregular based on non-adherence to the delegation of authority framework and legislation prescripts. However, no money has been spent on the facilitators of the agriculture and agro-processing master plan,” the report says.
The unit also accused NAMC CEO Simphiwe Ngqangweni of a “serious conflict of interest” after requesting a supply chain officer to ensure certain service providers were included in the list of companies that services were required from.
The department’s Reggie Ngcobo and Ngqangweni did not answer questions sent to them a fortnight ago. NAMC spokesperson Stephen Monamodi said the master plan matter was before their council.
“Kindly be informed that the matter is currently with the NAMC council for consideration.“The council will respond appropriately once the matter has been finalised,” he said. Agriculture is a critical economic sector in that it has room for expansion and opportunity for new participants.
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