Public-private venture for upgrading livestock sector ends up as grazing ground for misappropriations, embezzlements
By Junaid A. Ranjha:
Lahore:
The Pakistan Dairy Development Company set with a vision to modernise the dairy sector of the worlds fifth largest milk producers has turned out to be a wanton waste of public resources, taxpayers money and foreign grants. The PDDC under its current management neither has the capability nor the commitment to work for the development of livestock sector in the country, says the Ministry of Special Initiatives, the parent ministry of PDDC, in its report sent to the Prime Minister s Secretariat.The multi billion rupees project with primary objective to develop the dairy sector of the country proved to be a sanctuary for foreign consultants and an investing arm for the local dairy processing company reveals The News investigation on Tuesday. The reports prepared by the Ministry of Special Initiatives (MoSI) and the Planning Commission (PC) and interviews of PDDC staff reveal that the management of the PDDC diverted its resources and allocations for the provision of cool tanks to the top milk processing units in the country. The PDDC provided 1,140 cool tanks to a particular dairy processing company s supply chain of milk producers whereas these tanks were supposed to be provided to small dairy farmers on highly subsidised rates, an insider of PDDC told this correspondent.
The MoSI report states that out of the established cooling tanks, only 25 ordinary small farms have benefited from this scheme while the rest have been provided to multi-national processors through PDDC s funding. The company also mobilized major chunk of allocations for developing an infrastructure to set up dairy processing units for a former federal minister, the PDDC source further added.Secretary Special Initiatives, Abdul Shafiq refused to comment on the issue after repeated attempts to get ministry s side on the questions raised by two separate reports of MoSI and PC.The Pakistan Dairy Development Company commonly known as Dairy Pakistan is a public-private joint initiative to bring about long-term structural change in the dairy industry in Pakistan.
Pakistan is the fifth largest milk producer in the world, the PDDC project was envisioned to turn Pakistan into one of the top five dairy processing countries. Dairy Pakistan is embarking on the White Revolution - a phased plan targeting all the key players in the dairy sector.The implementation of White Revolution was designed in three phases - Horizon one, two and three.The Prime Minister has allocated Rs2 billion for Horizon I. The Horizon II costing Rs5.86 billion will focus on increasing productivity of rural areas and create a link between the value-chain.The White Revolution has PSDP funding of Rs2.654 million for Horizon-II that aims to develop community farms, milk pockets, military farm upgrades, bulk milk vending, training of master trainers for management practices, rural contractors, biogas program, regulation development program and breeding farms.The company has spent Rs182.59 million in 2008-09 with throw-forward amount of Rs2.471 billion and has an allocation of Rs100m for the current fiscal 2009-10. For the year 2007-08, Rs500m were allocated for the project, out of which Rs313m were released whereas Rs200m were utilised.The reports of PC and MoSI clearly state that the project failed to achieve its set targets and some of the interventions have not been reported even to date.The MoSI in its report dispatched to the PM s secretariat says that the PDDC management lacks the capability and commitment to work for the development of livestock sector.The PC report lays bare the facts that PDDC was assigned to establish 100 community farms at the cost of Rs542m but it has set up only seven farms. For milk pockets development with cost of Rs408m that include four HTST plants and 25 small plants none of them were developed even after spending Rs1.32m.The company was to upgrade military farms with cost of Rs284m but no break through has been reported and this component of the project has been put on hold. The setting up of five pasteurisation plants with associated vending outlets at a cost of Rs331m is still in the initial stage, the PC report added.About training of 300 master trainers and training of 8,250 farmers with cost of Rs406m, the report said that no progress has been made for master trainers while only 500 farmers were trained.Linking of finance program of executing middlemen with cost of Rs116m is yet to be initiated, it said, adding that creation of rural businesses contractors for equipment and servicing, only a single unit is operational and 10 application in process.For the establishment of biogas program with cost of Rs61m, the report highlighted that only 215 plants have been installed, said the report and no progress have been made to produce 200 heifers with cost of Rs506m.
The MoSI report states that out of the established cooling tanks, only 25 ordinary small farms have benefited from this scheme while the rest have been provided to multi-national processors through PDDC s funding. The company also mobilized major chunk of allocations for developing an infrastructure to set up dairy processing units for a former federal minister, the PDDC source further added.Secretary Special Initiatives, Abdul Shafiq refused to comment on the issue after repeated attempts to get ministry s side on the questions raised by two separate reports of MoSI and PC.The Pakistan Dairy Development Company commonly known as Dairy Pakistan is a public-private joint initiative to bring about long-term structural change in the dairy industry in Pakistan.
Pakistan is the fifth largest milk producer in the world, the PDDC project was envisioned to turn Pakistan into one of the top five dairy processing countries. Dairy Pakistan is embarking on the White Revolution - a phased plan targeting all the key players in the dairy sector.The implementation of White Revolution was designed in three phases - Horizon one, two and three.The Prime Minister has allocated Rs2 billion for Horizon I. The Horizon II costing Rs5.86 billion will focus on increasing productivity of rural areas and create a link between the value-chain.The White Revolution has PSDP funding of Rs2.654 million for Horizon-II that aims to develop community farms, milk pockets, military farm upgrades, bulk milk vending, training of master trainers for management practices, rural contractors, biogas program, regulation development program and breeding farms.The company has spent Rs182.59 million in 2008-09 with throw-forward amount of Rs2.471 billion and has an allocation of Rs100m for the current fiscal 2009-10. For the year 2007-08, Rs500m were allocated for the project, out of which Rs313m were released whereas Rs200m were utilised.The reports of PC and MoSI clearly state that the project failed to achieve its set targets and some of the interventions have not been reported even to date.The MoSI in its report dispatched to the PM s secretariat says that the PDDC management lacks the capability and commitment to work for the development of livestock sector.The PC report lays bare the facts that PDDC was assigned to establish 100 community farms at the cost of Rs542m but it has set up only seven farms. For milk pockets development with cost of Rs408m that include four HTST plants and 25 small plants none of them were developed even after spending Rs1.32m.The company was to upgrade military farms with cost of Rs284m but no break through has been reported and this component of the project has been put on hold. The setting up of five pasteurisation plants with associated vending outlets at a cost of Rs331m is still in the initial stage, the PC report added.About training of 300 master trainers and training of 8,250 farmers with cost of Rs406m, the report said that no progress has been made for master trainers while only 500 farmers were trained.Linking of finance program of executing middlemen with cost of Rs116m is yet to be initiated, it said, adding that creation of rural businesses contractors for equipment and servicing, only a single unit is operational and 10 application in process.For the establishment of biogas program with cost of Rs61m, the report highlighted that only 215 plants have been installed, said the report and no progress have been made to produce 200 heifers with cost of Rs506m.
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