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Zimbabwe: Vet Agric Input Beneficiaries Thoroughly
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 Published by the government of Zimbabwe |
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The Herald (Harare)
23 July 2008
Posted to the web 23 July 2008
Harare
THE scandal of a farmer who fraudulently acquired 12 200 litres of diesel from the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe has been trivialised by the fine of $180 billion imposed last week.
The magistrate almost certainly had little option and can be counted as blameless.
Fine levels have fallen dramatically in real terms since the last adjustment and cases of this nature are, under rules set by judicial precedent, punished by fine rather than jail terms.
But most people would like to see the punishment for fraudulently acquiring scarce inputs and then diverting these to the black market set at something a lot more realistic.
A good start would be the replacement of the actual inputs plus a fine equivalent to the black market price on the day of sentence.
That should comfortably bankrupt most of those trying this sort of criminal deceit.
As it is, the fines amount to no more than a tiny fraction of the sums a bogus farmer can realise; in other words, they are just an insignificant business expense.
But the case highlights another point, that farmers are not properly assessed before being allocated fuel and other inputs.
All they have to do is show they have the land, either with an offer letter or a lease agreement.
No one has to show they have farmed, intend to farm or even that they are able to farm.
All that these fraudulent activities do is divert much-needed resources from those who can use them properly, and force genuine farmers to rush to the black market for their vital inputs.
It goes beyond fraud and starts moving into the realm of economic sabotage.
We totally agree with the president of the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers' Union, Mr Wilson Nyabonda, that the allocation of fuel and other inputs should, in most cases, be based on what a farmer has produced in previous seasons.
The main period of land reform is now over.
Genuine farmers now have track records and a good farmer can and should be allocated more than he or she needed last season in a reasonable expectation that they can plant more.
The Ministry of Agriculture has a large number of technical staff on the ground who can assess farmers easily.
A newcomer to farming can be visited and it can be calculated, within a reasonable degree of accuracy, what that farmer can produce with the equipment and other capital items available.
This will at least ensure that the new farmer actually has a farm, that he or she is on the farm, and that there are things like tractors that need fuel.
There will be time to do this since most farmers eligible to benefit from a tightened scheme will have a track record of deliveries of harvest and so do not need a detailed examination.
There are also good grounds for removing subsidies, at least to large-scale producers.
Competent farmers are more interested in the availability of necessary inputs at fair prices, than in getting what amounts to free inputs for onward sale.
Many, indeed, have had to buy inputs wrongly allocated at horrendous mark-ups on the black market.
The other benefit of ensuring that only the proper farmers obtain inputs, and that they can obtain at a fair price all that they need, is that the black market for most items, although not for fuel, will cease to exist.
There will be no buyers if those who actually need the inputs can buy them legally.
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Fuel will remain a problem, since this can be diverted to non-farmer users, but following the proposal to base allocations on past performance, with expert assessments for newcomers, plus strict monitoring of use will close that leakage by fake farmers.
I thought economic sabateurs were to be dealt with firmly. It is curious thing that the farmer is not identified in this article..could it be one of the regular cronies??? hence the paltry fine and identity being protected?? One can only imagine if it was a white farmer caught doing this. the herald would have had a field day with all the racial stereotyping dug out of every available dictionary to condemn the man.
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