The minister of state for Economic Monitoring Beatrice Akello Akori has said that her office is investigating circumstances under which government agro processing inputs in Northern Uganda were illegally sold to Kenyan businessmen.
Akello who called for an emergency meeting in Gulu with the agro processing stakeholders, is concerned that government efforts to alleviate poverty in the region are being undermined as some individuals are selling the agro processing machines .
“I have directed the investigators to investigate those people responsible for the sale of those facilities to Kenya and they should be brought to book,” she said.
The minister who has been in the region to ascertain the usage of the agro processing facilities, said investigations have commenced.
“I will closely monitor that one because the government has injected a lot of money in these agro processing facilties” she added.
As she met the agro processing stakeholders in Gulu, she also revealed that some of the facilities are not being used for their intended purposes.
Northern Uganda especially the Acholi sub region has abundant fertile arable land which the government wants to empower farmers to produce food for consumption and export.
The Deputy Coordinator, Operation Wealth Creation Brigadier General Godfrey Muwanguzi condemned the stealing of government agro processing equipment “because this is taxpayers money that was invested and from the perspective of OWC we wonder as to whether these operators recall the PDM SACCOs that have been formed need now to tap into these facilities.”
However the farmers say the government did not do proper consultation while installing some of these agro processing facilities.
Michael Okema, the Chairperson of Puponya Growers Cooperative Society in Atiak, Amuru district says the government should prioritize mechanization.
“Right now as I talk we do not have money to connect our machine so that our machine is operating, we need to also appeal to the government that we need really the tractors because our farmers are still using hand hoes and yet we have big machines, stores which need to be full so we need to get mechanized."
Ruth Kashaka, a development officer in the ministry of local government wants every stakeholder to be responsible.
“We also urge the local government to step up their game of monitoring,” she concluded.
