Upon consultants’ suggestion to split Agriculture Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) into two (Commercial and Social Admarc), the parastatal’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, Felix Jumbe, has opposed, noting that the functional review recommendation to split Admarc was done by a consultant who was short of understanding of how things work.

On the other hand, Jumbe feels that what is needed for the parastatal is recapitalisation. Recently, the Agriculture Committee of Parliament called to implement and intensify efforts to rid corruption at the parastatal as it has abused resources amounting to K3 billion, according to the national Audit Office (NAO). The tough call to split the parastatal arrives as the parastatal’s reputation is of corruption and abuse of funds, as Admarc has been accused of failure to prepare bank reconciliations, non-compliance with procurement procedures, omitting bank accounts in the general ledger, non remittances of pension contributions as well as non remittance of pay as you earn (Paye), fringe benefit tax and withholding tax.

Whether Adamrc will be split or not, it is agreed by the CEO and government that the parastatal needs an administration overhaul; what that may mean is up for assessment by parliament and other stakeholders.