Tractorization: How FMARD squanders N5.5B without result

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) has been pinned responsible for the wastages of N5.5 billion being an approval by former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) for procurement of tractors and other simple equipment under the private sector proposal initiative presented to him by the ministry.

A very close source to the genesis of Government initiative to the tractors and other equipment procurement initiative in the ministry said that President Jonathan approved N5.5 billion out of recommended N5.8 as pilot project for five states through private sector initiative arrangement of vendor entrepreneurs that will approach Bank of Agriculture (BOA) where the part of the money is  demociled for borrowing as loans.

The source said that the idea was to forestall the unproductive method of government buying tractors that will not be supplied, or even stolen after and still be resupplied as new to the same ministry. 

The source added that the FG would have by now extanded the money to about N20 billion tractorization  coverage because a total of N45 billion was approved for the entire nation by the then president GEJ to make tractors and other simple equipment available for farmers.

According to our source,  if the first ranch of N5.5 for five states in the North had not been squandered by the corrupt system where few directors and even the female Permanent Secretary ( PS) of the ministry then had not turned their eyes away from wrong practices that give way for the amount not being able to be well accounted as their families and friends were used as tractors' vendors which was contrary the the implementation reasoning why former President approved the presented proposal.The money spent by now would have increased to N20 billion because President Jonathan had actually approved N45 billion for the entire federation in order to ensure wide coverage of the nation in addition to the N5.5 billion.

Our source said what happened was that the ministry jettisoned all the implementation process of the fund as stated order to suite their selfish interest through a connivance with an instituted consultant within the system who was faciliting fictitious payments thereby not allowing the BOA to actually perform its diligent financial monitoring function of loan recovery as this also gives the bank opportunity to have its ways into the corruption. 

All effort to checkmate this unlawful act by some ministry officials who were not disposed to the wrong doing landed on deaf ears of the then PS whose husband was actually one of the vendors being used with others.

Corruption in the FMARD is so amazing to the point that there was an instance of when some serial numbers of tractors that had been once supplied were stolen, and resupplied to the Sheda store of the ministry in Gwagbalada, Abuja that resorted to the burning down of the place when the perpetrators discovered that the deal is about to be exposed. Said another source. 

The source pointed that the remnants of the carcarces of those burnt tractors are still there till date saying that government officials should not be allowed to procure anything if we actually want a good result.

It will be recalled that the National Assembly following a committee investigation had indicted BOA of not being able to account for N3.2 billion distributed to 10 vendors out of N3.6 billion provided by FG in the year 2015.