2013-09-23Mathias Haufiku "… additional purveyors soughtMURURANI – Private companies contracted to supply food to famished households ravished by drought are failing dismally with one specific contractor delivering only about 50 percent of the required volumes of food to people registered for drought relief. The situation is so serious that the regions are now engaged in a frantic search for additional private food suppliers to cover the shortfall as hundreds of hungry households wait to receive food relief. In August, about 25 000 households that registered to receive food aid in the two Kavango regions did not receive maize meal, as the company contracted failed to supply the required volume of maize meal. So far the regions that are experiencing delivery problems are the two Kavango regions and the Kunene Region. The shortcomings have been reported to Deputy Prime Minister Marco Hausiku, who confirmed the circumstances to New Era last Friday during his working visit to the region. “I am aware of the problem and the [regional] leaders have informed me what they are doing to handle the situation. I was informed by the leaders of both Kavango and Kunene that they are experiencing a problem in terms of supply as required per month. The governor and the regional disaster risk management committee have started to enlist the assistance of other suppliers [since the current suppliers] cannot [deliver],"" Hausiku confirmed. Yesterday, one of the private suppliers in the Kavango regions, Tulio van der Merwe Parreira of Kavango Mills, rubbished claims of failing to deliver, but declined to comment further promising an in-depth interview today. Kavango Mills is also contracted to supply the Ohangwena Region. Information from the Kavango Regional Council is that the region is now looking to enlist additional maize meal suppliers, because the existing supplier is unable to cope and to deliver the required bags of maize meal for the 174 206 drought-stricken people registered under the comprehensive drought relief programme. The council says in August it required 60 000 bags of maize meal to be delivered, however only 35 500 bags were delivered. The limited supply meant that each constituency only received about 266 bags per day, way below the required volumes, the council said. ""The supply is not enough, but we indicated to the regional leadership that they are in charge because they are in direct and regular contact with the supplier. This problem has to be resolved immediately, we do not want excuses, we brought them in contact already and they must know what to do,"" Hausiku said. Officials of the regional council also lamented the short supply from contractors with one saying it is “totally unacceptable for us because it is very costly. Some constituency offices are more than 180 kilometres away from the central distribution point, the trucks have to be fuelled, officials need to be paid but the trucks are driving without being filled to capacity. This means it has to make more trips, which means more spending for us.” Hausiku said if a supplier “cannot manage to deliver what we require, they must inform us in good time so that we can source the remaining commodities from other suppliers. When we started in August I called in the supplier [for Kavango] and told him about the requirements he has to meet and he assured me that he could cope. The intention of the comprehensive drought relief programme is to provide for each registered individual one bag per month and to do that you have to provide the number of bags per month at the beginning as per the number of registered people. In my discussions with the councillors and local leaders I informed them that from the first of August we will not allocate bags per household, but per person,"" Hausiku said. Parreira yesterday maintained that as far as he is concerned there is no shortage. ""I am the boss and nobody informed me about it, there are a lot of allegations which are not true. So, please come see me tomorrow so that we can discuss this,"" said Parreira. Chairperson of the Kavango Regional Council Management Committee, Bonny Wakudumo, yesterday said the council stands by its statement of Friday. ""How can he say we are accusing him, we have records that show how many bags were received from the supplier. We will soon have to arrange to meet with him to discuss this."" In the meantime the regional council promised to have alternative remedies in place by the end of this week. By Mathias Haufiku" 2013-09-23Mathias Haufiku
