MANGOCHI-(MaraviPost)-The UTM Party leader Dr. Saulos Chilima on Sunday demanded serious prosecution for those involved in the gave away tractors scam, “Tractorgate”.

The call comes following Malawi’s Ministry of Agriculture apology on the wrong doing on the scam.

Chilima told the St.Augustine 3, Mangochi thanksgiving rally that government’s regret over the flawed procurement and disposal of archaic farm equipment purchased using $50 million (about K37 billion) borrowed funds in 2012, is not enough.

“US$50 million is not a small money which cant just go with apology. The nation wants those involved in the whole process to go sour they be taken to task,” demanded Chilima.

In February this year, the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal backed the Ombudsman and ruled that the two public officers [PSs]should issue “a public apology for buying equipment that was archaic and sitting idle and deteriorating, thus unnecessarily indebting Malawians and for the illegal selling of the tractors”.

Attorney General Kalekeni Kaphale, whose office is the chief legal adviser to the government, said the State would comply with the determination by the Ombudsman.

Initially, the Attorney General had described the demand for the apology as unreasonable and was favoured by the High Court, but the Ombudsman successfully appealed the decision.

Ruling on the appeal, the Supreme Court said the Ombudsman’s Office acted within its mandate by ordering the respective offices to comply with its order for a public apology on how they managed the procurement and disposal.

Besides the apology, the Ombudsman, in a 48-page October report titled ‘The Present Toiling, The Future Overburdened’, also recommended prosecution of the members of the internal procurement committee (IPC) and “those who presided over the sale of the farm machinery and benefited from the sale should be prosecuted in accordance with the Procurement Act”.

The farm equipment was bought using part of the $50 million line of credit from Export-Import Bank of India with the aim of facilitating mechanisation of agriculture in the country.

The farm machinery in question included 100 tractors and 144 maize shellers. In total, 177 tractors were bought for distribution to agriculture development divisions (ADDs) to enable smallholder farmers graduate to mechanisation by hiring the equipment.

However, only 77 tractors were distributed to ADDs while 100 were sold.