Agriculture Minister Mtolo Phiri has maintained that the distribution of fertilizer for the 2022/23 farming season will commence this week despite the cancellation of the fertilizer procurement tender last week.
Mr. Mtolo says despite the remaining limited time, guidelines will strictly be adhered to and has assured stakeholders not to worry about concerns of lack of transparency, as government cannot take procedures for granted in its procurement exercises.
He says there are many ways of procuring a service or goods, one of them being the open tender which he says is the best and transparent as it gives chance to all players to participate, but states that due to anomalies faced with the open tender system, government has opted for the selective tender system.
Mr. Mtolo has told Phoenix News that this system will help cut on time and further disclosed that the process is currently underway to ensure distribution goes on as planned.
Last week, the Zambia Public Procurement of Authority –ZPPA- announced the cancellation of the fertilizer supply tender for the 2022/2023 farming season which was recently awarded by the Ministry of Agriculture saying the process was flawed.
