Kwame Agbodza, the Ranking Member of Parliament’s Roads and Highways Committee, has accused the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo of unilaterally suspending the construction of cocoa roads.
According to him, the decision by the COCOBOD boss will cost Ghana more money.
[contextly_sidebar id=”ub3KtWaQqYp9ciUKq0HWYg7KFhVTpPh5″]Speaking on Eyewitness News on Monday, Mr. Agbodza said most of the roads were developing into very terrible state due to the decision to halt all construction works on them.
“The Chief Executive of COCOBOD has unilaterally stopped all cocoa roads and these roads are getting deteriorated and I can bet you, we will pay more for all those roads because some of these roads have been left for 7 months and they have deteriorated, and when they come back to the road they would have to fix that before they go on, meaning we will pay more…. Perhaps the Chief Executive of COCOBOD would have to be cited one day for willfully causing financial loss to the state,” he said.
The Chief Executive of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo in July 2017 announced the decision to halt construction when the Board and management of the company paid a courtesy call on the Okyehene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panyin.
He said the decision was to allow the company conduct a full audit into all road contracts to ensure that it does not strain its finances. He noted that the previous government had entered into various road contracts of values far above the company’s financial capacity.
“We are just suspending the project to make way for a comprehensive audit which will give us a clearer picture because we need to protect the public purse especially money coming from the sweat of modest cocoa farmers,” he said.
The Cocoa Roads Project aims at improving road networks in cocoa communities with the view to ensuring access to remote cocoa areas as well as creating a congenial environment to promote the livelihoods of cocoa farmers.
Among other things, it is to solve the challenges associated with carting cocoa beans from the farm gates to buying centers and also to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers.
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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana