The transporter who was arrested for the alleged missing 410 metric tonnes of National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) maize worth K123 million is counting on his proposal that the agency should not cancel his contract but recover the money from his payments.

Both NFRA and the transporter, Smolet Kachere, confirmed that they met over the matter on Tuesday in the presence of their lawyers.

Lilongwe NFRA silos where the maize was supposed to be ferried to

In an interview Thursday, NFRA board chairperson Denis Kalekeni disclosed that Kachere requested NFRA to have the contract that was halted continue and deduct from his payments the lost maize.

“The transporter also wants NFRA to withdraw the police case as this was a contractual issue. It is an issue that is still under discussion. We have 12 truckloads that are still missing,” he said said.

According to Kalekeni, NFRA is yet to respond to Kachere’s request.

The transporter, under the name Kachere Agriculture Trading, was engaged by NFRA to ferry maize from Admarc depots across the country to NFRA depot in Lilongwe, but along the way, the agency discovered that 14 truck-loads went missing. Following the development, Kachere was subsequently arrested on October 21 2022 and was released on bail four days later.

In an interview yesterday, Kachere said he has expressed regret for the missing trucks and committed to refund the maize.

“I pleaded with NFRA to allow us continue the contract because we are mindful that the contract needs to be finished before the rains start. We humbly requested them to withdraw the case against me considering that this was a contractual obligation whose losses could be replaced through deductions or insurance cover,” he said.

Kachere further said he expected NFRA to understand him because the agency owes him over K129 million—K63 079 698 for trucks which were sent to Karonga but returned empty and another K66 million for services rendered.

Kachere said his company failed to trace the trucks because they did not appear on their sub-contracting list.

“All 146 trucks, which were sub contracted and have a contract with me, have offloaded. I am only trying to be reasonable with NFRA because they also contributed to this mess. They reported about the missing trucks after 45 days. We thought all was well until we got a complaint,” he said.

The transporter added that they accepted responsibility of the loss solely because the contract was in their name.

The transporter, who claimed to have been in business for 20 years, said his contract started early August, but NFRA informed him of the missing trucks on September 28 2022. However, he said the missing trucks are 12, not 14.

Delivery of the maize, according to our sources at NFRA, was supposed to begin early September, but by September 10 2022, management was made aware of the missing trucks.

However, NFRA management did not report the matter until on October 20 2022. Admarc bought maize for NFRA and it has been keeping it in its depots. This was after government, through Parliament, funded Admarc with K12 billion. The agency was initially funded directly to purchase maize for the strategic grain reserves.

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