NPP Director of Communications, Yaw Buaben Asamoa
The governing New Patriotic Party has said that cocoa farmers in the country are better off under the Akufo-Addo-led government than they were under the previous Mahama-led National Democratic Congress administration.
According to the NPP, the Akufo-Addo government has initiated policies which have improved the cocoa sector, unlike the Mahama administration which virtually plundered the sector.
Speaking at press conference in Accra yesterday, the party’s Director of Communications, Yaw Buaben Asamoa, said the “previous NDC government cannot credit itself with one single policy or intervention within the cocoa industry that was introduced by them.’
He added: “This is because most of the interventions in the cocoa industry were first initiated and implemented by either the Kufuor government or this present government. At best, what they could do was to maintain some of our policies.”
Interventions
Mr Buaben Asamoa added that the Akufo-Addo government would continue to introduce and implement policies that will inure to the collective benefit of farmers and to strengthen the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD).
He listed the policies and programmes of the NPP government in the cocoa sector to include the cocoa rehabilitation programme, which has had a total of 144,421,477 seedlings produced and distributed to farmers between 2017 and 2019 and the Productivity Enhancement Programmes (PEPs), aimed at increasing, by significant proportions, the production capacity of existing cocoa trees and ultimately enable farmers earn more from their labour without having to increase their farm areas.
Others include the hand pollination initiative; introduction of the Cocoa Mass Spraying Programme; free supply of hybrid seedlings to re-establish farms undergoing rehabilitation; distribution of dual-purposed Sharp Power 4T Motorised Pruners to farmers; introduction of cocoa farm irrigation projects; improved extension agent to farmer ratio; introduction of women and youth in cocoa farming programme, among others.
He therefore called on cocoa farmers to vote massively for President Akufo-Addo in the December 7 general election to ensure that the gains made in the cocoa sector are maintained and built upon.
Cocoa roads
On cocoa roads, Mr Buaben Asamoa rejected claims by the flagbearer of the NDC, John Mahama, that the NPP government has neglected projects started by his administration.
The NPP Director of Communications noted that the projects had to be suspended for an audit to be conducted to fix some anomalies which “resulted in inflated costs of some of the contracts awarded by the previous government.”
“Far from what the NDC will want Ghanaians to believe, at no point within the current Government was a decision taken to neglect cocoa roads projects begun under the previous administration,” he said, adding that “in order to deepen accountability and protect the public purse, as well as ensure value for money, due diligence had to be exercised.”
“It is important to state that the contractors who were awarded contracts by the previous administration and had genuine claims were promptly paid. During the 2017/2018 cocoa season, an amount of GH₵497 million was paid to some of those cocoa roads contractors and another GH₵414 million was subsequently paid in 2018/2019 cocoa season. Also, road projects awarded by the previous government that were near completion in 2017 were, as well, allowed to be completed by the contractors,” he said.
Deviation
Mr Buaben said the records showed that the Mahama-led government deviated from the original purpose and intent for the construction of cocoa roads.
“There was a heavy concentration on the construction of highways and in some cases roads in non-cocoa growing areas. A whopping 63 per cent of the funds for cocoa roads was devoted to Highways; five per cent went to Urban Roads and the rest went to Feeder Roads. This situation has changed significantly. That is why today the increase in tarred feeder roads across the cocoa-growing regions in Ghana can be as high as nearly 40 per cent in just under four years.
“Cocoa roads contracts awarded by the previous government, constituting 229 projects, amounted to some GH₵5.1 billion. This was at a time when funds available to pay for road construction in total was only GH₵1.7 billion. Specifically for cocoa roads, the approved annual amounts averaged GH₵500 million for the COCOBOD Infrastructural Development Trust Fund for the entire five year period for the programme,” he stated.
Inflated costs
“Indeed, John Mahama committed GH₵3.2 billion (64 per cent) that he did not have to just 74 projects awarded by the Ghana Highway Authority – not the Department of Feeder Roads. The 131 projects under Feeder Roads was valued at just GH₵1.5 billion. Again. The average cost per KM of trunk roads in the contract award was GH₵2.5 million; more than double the KM cost of the feeder roads at GH₵1.16m.
“The 140 contractors who were awarded the 229 contracts, none of the contracts went through a competitive tendering process – not a single one. The cost per km was much higher than the average cost of other government-sponsored road projects. For example, for the Preastea-Samreboi Road, awarded to Asabea Engineering Ltd, the audit report found that it was inflated by 121.85 per cent. This is a classic case of incompetent economic management, worsened by corruption. Also, several contractors were requesting payment for variation on contract amounts which were multiple times in excess of the initial contingency or variation amounts allocated.
“Whilst the Mahama-led Government could not honour the payments of contracts they signed right from 2014/2015 cocoa season, they continued to sign additional contracts till 2017 when they left office, piling up dubious debt,” Mr Asamoa clarified.
About The Author
