ICU, GAWU at war with COCOBOD

Two unionised groups in the cocoa sector — the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union of Ghana (ICU—Ghana) and the General Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU) - have appealed to the government to investigate alleged malfeasance and irregularities allegedly orchestrated by the management of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD). 

At a joint press conference in Accra yesterday, the two unions said there were a number of corrupt practices involving the secret sale of cocoa, excess cocoa deliveries to processing factories, improper accounting for medicines at the Cocoa Clinic, waste on procurement and insurance of cocoa exports, duties of the buyers, duties of COCOBOD, and punitive transfers in the organisation needed immediate investigation.

Delivering a statement on behalf of the groups, the General Secretary of GAWU, Mr Kingsley Ofei-Nkansah, said the happenings at the COCOBOD, the nation’s foremost foreign exchange earner, was draining the nation of huge sums of monies which could have been used to develop the cocoa sector.

Alleged corrupt practices

Elaborating on the allegations, Mr Ofei-Nkansah said thousands of tonnes of cocoa were sold by the management of the company at the blind side of the government and for which no proper accounts were maintained either.

He said the act would have fetched the country $US10 million as of February 23, 2016 when the world market price of the produce was US2,868 per ton, excluding premium.

“The special sample residue is done by drawing an average of 0.3 kg of cocoa beans from each bag taken over and sold by the cocoa marketing company. So, for every 1,000 tonnes of cocoa, they get on the average 4.6875 tonnes, an equivalent of 75 bags. Therefore, the yearly average purchase of 750,000 tonnes will amount to 3,515.625 tonnes. This would have fetched Ghana over US$10 million dollars as of February 23, 2016,” he said.

In the area of excess cocoa deliveries to processing factories, Mr Ofei-Nkansah said the weighing system in the cocoa industry was not very accurate, hence most of the bags of the coca weighed more than standard sales weight of 62.5 kg.

Moreover, he said sales were done in tonnes weighing 1,000kg net, and, therefore, all cocoa delivered in excess of the weight per tonnes.

Furthermore, the group alleged that the software put in place to help account for medicines had not been operating effectively and efficiently at the Cocoa Clinic. That, according to them, had led to huge medicine shortages being recorded in the past years.

The group added that although the attention of management of COCOBOD had been drawn to it nothing had been done. “This inaction of management suggests clearly that the state of the software is the work of a syndicate established to divert these drugs for their personal gain,” it alleged.

Other allegations 

GAWU and ICU-Ghana also alleged that the acquisition of the Old Kingsway (Swanzy Arcade) building was fraught with some irregularities in respect of the real value, intended sales value and the actual price paid by COCOBOD.

They added that Ghana had lost millions of dollars from the sale of cocoa to the local factories due to mismanagement of the cocoa deliveries.

According to them, some secret verification exercise as to whether all cocoa sold to the factories were appropriately paid for revealed that from March 3, 2011 to March 27, 2012, the Cocoa Marketing Company (Gh) Limited delivered 29,277 bags and 37,729 bags of cocoa to Cargill and Barry Callibaut factories respectively without the appropriate documentation.

The group further alleged that the members of staff of COCOBOD who insisted that the right thing must be done were sent to remote areas where they were not supposed to work considering their profession, positions, job descriptions and the organisational structure.

“Even deputy directors, senior managers and deputy managers who are supposed to take critical management decisions at the head offices have been sent to the regional offices to do work supposed to be done by staff below managerial positions,” they said.

GAWU and ICU-Ghana also alleged that the Chief Executive of the COCOBOD, Dr Stephen Opuni, had approved GH¢100,000 in the name of Alhaji Idris Hassan as part of the May Day celebrations.

They further alleged that Dr Opuni’s monthly salary was equivalent to that of the Governor of the Bank of Ghana.

The two unions, therefore, called on the Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Emmanuel Terkper, to investigate the issues raised and said they had also referred the matter to the Attorney General and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) for the appropriate action to be taken.