Inadequate budget ‘bad for Ministry of Agriculture’

DAILY NEWS Reporter in Dodoma

The Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee for Agriculture, Livestock and Water, Dr Mary Nagu.

THE Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries is struggling to implement its activities and meet targets as it has received only a small part of its budget allocations for the current financial year, Parliament has been told.

The Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee for Agriculture, Livestock and Water, Dr Mary Nagu, said in Parliament that the ministry had received 38.4 per cent only of its recurrent expenditure budget and 14.31 per cent only of its development budget for the current financial year as at March 31.

Presenting the committee’s opinion on the implementation of the 2015/2016 budget for the ministry and estimates for 2016/2017 financial year, Dr Nagu said the ministry could not meet targets in distribution of farm implements.

She said the ministry had failed to pay its creditors and contractors and it could not increase the number of extension officers for agriculture, livestock and fisheries. Giving details, Dr Nagu told the House that the ministry had not received a cent out of 22.65bn/- allocated as development projects for the livestock sector until last March 31, 2016.

The committee was not satisfied with the explanation by the government as to why the funds had not been issued, she said. The government had not also disbursed 600m/- development budget for the Fisheries and Education Training Agency (FETA).

The committee advised the government to issue the funds allocated to the fisheries authority so enable implementation of the set targets and help the fisheries subsector to contribute to the national economy, she said.

The committee said as at the end of March this year, the ministry had managed to collect 23.3bn/- of revenue, which is about 80 per cent of the projected collection of 29.2bn/-.

She said the committee is convinced that the ministry was capable of collecting revenue from its various sources and it will increase efficiency if it will be allowed to use the revenue it has collected to implement its plans instead of sending it directly to the Treasury.