The Member of Parliament for Asunafo South, Eric Opoku, has slammed the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for its handling of the cocoa sector.
According to him, most of the cocoa roads did not go through competitive tendering.
“Most of the cocoa roads under this government didn’t go through competitive tendering. This government has been poor in handling the cocoa sector” he stated in an interview on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Thursday.
The Akufo-Addo administration suspended the cocoa road projects in 2017 for an audit following corruption concerns.
The government has since lifted the suspension and has said contractors are being given funds to resume work on various projects.
Government indebtedness to contractors has been a challenge in the execution of road projects over the years.
The erstwhile Mahama administration was among other things accused of awarding over 230 different road contracts to the tune of GHC3.5 billion under the project, to the detriment of the Ghana Cocoa Boards’ finances.
But Mr. Opoku accused the government of negligence, adding that the mismanagement by the NPP government has had severe consequences for the sector.
“The government has not done anything better in the cocoa sector. The completion of these roads is necessary to ultimately enhance agricultural production in communities currently facing problems of poor road networks.”
He noted that, the earlier suspension of work on cocoa roads has exacerbated these issues.
He said even in instances where COCOBOD was expected to make some savings for the country, it ended up tumbling deeper into the abyss.
Mr. Opoku said COCOBOD’s finances have been plummeting since the Mahama administration handed over to the current government.
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