Admarc board of directors chairperson Alexander Kusamba Dzonzi says government has set aside over K6 billion in compensation to laid-off state run produce company employees.
This follows an announcement that Admarc is to retrench over 3,000 workers as part of a restructuring program.
According to the authorities, the shake-up is the only way they could revive the institution’s operations for the benefit of ordinary farmers.
Kusamba Dzonzi has justified the payment of staff prior to their being laid off stressing that timely settling of labour issues is a government obligation.
Kusamba Dzonzi said the number of employees will be reduced from 4 687 to 1565, representing 67 percent cut.
He said the financially struggling state produce trader has “too many employees” on its payroll who were not adding value but only burdening taxpayers.
He described Admarc as a casino for politicians and other ‘big boys’ in the country.
A document in our possession collaborates what Kusamba Dzonzi told the parliamentary committee.
The document says Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians burdened the Admarc wage bill with cadets, mistresses, party dancing women, nieces, uncles, aunts, thereby bloating the wage bill with over 3,000 people who were not required in the Admarc structure.
The report also says that over 100 cases against Admarc, majority of which were aimed at stripping off the parastatal assets.
“Majority of whom are actually orchestrated by Admarc employees colluding with clients who later sue and they go about sharing spoils.
“Strangely and suspiciously, Admarc legal team has never won a single case, raising suspicion of collision to strip Admarc of assets,” reads the report in part.
The report says over K6 billion has vanished without trace, saying when the board took an interest on the matter, staff including management became hostile against accountability, hiding critical information.
“Now, there is deep rooted tradition of political interference to suppress Admarc progress. This has even captured staff the parent ministry who don’t even care about what Admarc has been through.
“Then comes MPs who are also captured by the same business men who established a deep syndicate of ripping off Admarc,” says the report.
The report says there was also the tendency of theft, vandalism, destruction by employees who felt entitled and unaccountable to nobody.
“Despite all these obvious unhealthy and unprofessional issues at Admarc, the CEO was cutting home K14 million monthly Salary,” says the report.
Malawians have taken up on various social media spaces to applaud the Chakwera administration for swiftly initiating the restructuring program after years of looting and plundering by previous administrations.
