It said an interim audit on the contracts of the cocoa roads conducted by technical consultants had revealed that many of the cocoa roads for which contracts were awarded had been found to be nonexistent or excessively over bloated.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the COCOBOD, Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo, who announced this, said: “For the first time in the history of Ghana, the NDC had introduced ghost cocoa roads in Ghana.”

Road debts

Briefing journalists on Thursday at a press conference, Mr Aidoo accused the previous administration of engaging in various financial malfeasances, resulting in huge debts, hinting that the board had instituted a number of investigations and audit findings into such deals.

Mr Aidoo said, for instance, that upon the assumption of office in February 2017, his administration inherited cocoa roads debt of GH¢3.52 billion.

Mr Aidoo said even though a budgetary allocation of GH¢1.64 billion was earmarked for the cocoa roads project between the 2014/2015 and 2016/2017 cocoa seasons, the then government awarded contracts to the tune of GH¢5.16 billion.

Abuse

Mr Aidoo said under the cocoa roads contracts, four-wheel drive vehicles were purchased by COCOBOD for the contractors as part of the contract price, adding that 160 vehicles were with the contractors.

“To indicate the abuse, an 18km road, for example, was allocated six fourwheel vehicles for inspection by the old administration. I have initiated steps to retrieve the vehicles from the contractors,” he told the press conference.

NDC press conference at Bodi

Meanwhile, at a press conference at Bodi in the Western Region last week, the Minority in Parliament accused the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of neglecting the over 230 cocoa roads selected from all the cocoa regions in Ghana on contract.

The NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Bodi, Mr Sampson Ahi, said: “It is sad to note that no provision was made for cocoa roads in the COCOBOD budget for 2017/18.”

Stabilisation fund

On the stabilisation fund, Mr Ahi said even though the NPP was not able to provide adequate answers to issues raised earlier by the NDC, “we are still interested in knowing how much is accumulated in the Cocoa Stabilisation Fund and its impact on the cocoa farmers in this critical period”.

However, Mr Aidoo accused the NDC government of not setting aside the budgeted figure of GH¢93.5 million for the 2016/2017 season “as a result of misplaced priorities”.

He explained that when the NPP government took office in January 2017, an amount of GH¢103.5 million had been added to the fund, bringing the cumulative balance to GH¢310 million.

Mr Aidoo said the actual amount required to maintain the producer price in the 2017/18 season was GH¢1.294 billion, explaining that the price subsidy to the farmers was, therefore, GH¢984 million after setting off the stabilisation fund of GH¢310 million.

Free fertilizer programme

Speaking on the free fertiliser programme, Mr Ahi noted that the NPP government demonstrated its insensitivity to the plight of the ordinary cocoa farmer by ignoring
“our wise counsel” and proceeding to replace the free fertilization programme with subsidised arrangement, under which a bag of fertiliser which was given to the farmer for free was now sold at GH¢80 in spite of its embossment of ‘strictly not for sale’.

However, in a rebuttal, Mr Aidoo accused the NDC government of introducing sub-standard and inefficacious fertilisersinto the cocoa hitech programme.

He said when that fertilizer was procured, the cocoa farmers expressed misgivings and disquiet in accepting the sub-standard fertilisers through the free fertilizer programme introduced by the immediate past CEO of the board, Dr Stephen Opuni, and the NDC regime.

Mass spraying

Touching on the mass spraying exercise, Mr Aidoo accused the previous administration of changing the normal model of spraying by gangs to the distribution of sub-standard insecticides and fungicides to farmers to spray their own farmers.

“The amount saved from the non-payment of gangs was misapplied through inflated contracts,” he alleged.

Syndicated loan

Speaking on the syndicated loan, Mr Aidoo noted that the NDC government secured an amount of $1.8 billion for the 2016/2017 cocoa purchases, which were projected at 850,000 metric tonnes.

“As of January 2017, the $1.8 billion had been fully drawn and utilised when only 587,125 metric tonnes of cocoa had been purchased.

“The mystery surrounding the exhaustion of the $1.8 billion is being investigated and the full facts will be made known to Ghanaians in due course.

“Peculiar to the loan utilisation is the last drawdown of $400 million which was effected on December 20, 2016 at the time the NDC had woefully lost the December 2016 election,” he said.