The nine companies including Eva­dox Limited and Brasoman Company Limited are part of 17 companies which had failed to pay for cocoa seeds for more than four cocoa seasons and had ceased to operate.

One other company, Royal Com­modities, currently operating and indebted to the board, had been put on a payment plan to settle its debt, according to the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Cocoa Board, Joseph Boahen Aidoo.

This came to light when the manage­ment of COCOBOD appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament to respond to infractions contained in the 2021 Auditor-Gener­al’s report.

The Board, he said had initiated legal action against some of the defaulting companies including Fortune Tree Company Ltd, Aboafo Buyers, Splen­did Business Services, Nhyira Dua, Hyperlink Commodities and Yemon Ghana Ltd to recover the remaining GH¢35 million debts.

Attached to the legal action, Mr Aidoo noted were the guarantors of the seed buying companies to aid the debt recovery exercise, adding that “we are going after the guarantors of the collapsed companies to recover our funds.”

He indicated that the board had also engaged the vibrant companies on a payment plan which had enabled them settle the debt while operating profit­ably.

“We have taken the needed steps to recover all our seed funds which had been in arrears for a number of cocoa seasons. For those active companies, we have agreed on a payment plan and taken legal action against some of the defaulters. We are also actively pursuing guarantors of the seeds buying compa­nies as well,” Mr Aidoo noted.

By October this year, he said COCOBOD would launch a cocoa farmer’s pension scheme to cover more than 793,000 farmers that would in­clude contributions from COCOBOD to ensure the welfare of farmers across the country.

He stated that COCOBOD had ensured the retirement of GH¢276,830 impress, adding that as a control mea­sure, staff had been issued with notices of unretired impress to ensure timely retirement of impress.

Staff who fail to adhere to the no­tices, he said were surcharged to deter others from doing same.

Mr Aidoo said as part of strategies to recover overage debts amounting to more than US$179 million, COCO­BOD had converted US$85.5 million debt into equity share in Cocoa Pro­cessing Company Limited, while other debtors including Niche and Afrotropic have paid about US$21.6 million.

“A total amount of US$20,089,408.54 has been paid by Barry Cal., Ghana, Chococmax, Niche Cocoa Industry and Olam Ghana in settlement of their indebtedness. COCOBOD has made special arrange­ments with the companies for repay­ment of the monies,” he stated.