Government has awarded Alpha Commodities a Fertiliser supply deal valued at $65 million despite graft accusations as well as inflating of quoted prices, allegations which were never investigated or cleared by competent governance institutions.
Alpha commodities, whose Director and main shareholder Maurice Jangulo is linked to Information Minister Chushi Kasanda had been accused of not declaring interest, a situation which has still not been cleared as to how government business can be conducted without raising public concerns.
According to a notice of best evaluated bidders seen by the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Ministry of Agriculture Head of Procurement Anon Madima, Government has announced a list of companies and supply contract amounts intention to award the supply and delivery of about 260,000 metric tonnes of urea and compound D fertilizer to six companies for the 2022/2023 agricultural season.
Alpha Commodities has been awarded a contract to supply fertilizer valued at $66 million for the 2022/2023 Agro season. The total value of contracts awarded amounts to about $226 million. Conspicuously mission from the list is Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia – NCZ which has last time supplied cheaper priced fertilizer which exposed the inflated prices of Alpha Commodities.
Questions have been raised concerning government’s decision to award a contract to Maurice Jangulo’s Alpha Commodities as the company was accused of supplying 37, 000 tonnes of fertilizers at what was considered as inflated price of $1, 407 per tonne while the general market price was $1, 000 per tonne during the 2021/2022 agricultural season.
Alpha Commodities, a company which has Maurice Jangulo who is also husband to Minister of Information and Media Chushi Kasanda’s had earlier confirmed to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT that it supplied fertilizer to the government in the 2020/2021 farming season under the Farmer Input Support Programme-FISP but however declined to give any details on the pricing.
An employee from Alpha commodities had confirmed supplying fertilizer to the government during the previous agriculture season 2021/2022 but could not confirm the quantities or at what price the fertilizer was supplied. A parliamentary statement by Agro minister Ntolo Phiri confirmed that the higher purchase price per ton paid to Alpha commodities was because the procurement had been done in haste. No former investigations by an independent governance institution have been done or publicly reported.
see other reports on https://zambianbusinesstimes.com/alpha-commodities-mute-over-allegations-of-supplying-over-priced-fertilizer/
