Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Carlos Ahenkorah, has revealed government’s plans to release a forensic audit ordered into the affairs of Komenda sugar factory.
Government in May 2019 requested a forensic audit into how the factory, which at the time of its commissioning in 2016, valued at 35 million dollars, devalued by more than 60 per cent.
According to the Deputy Minister, the factory which was constructed with an Exxim Bank loan and inaugurated by former president John Mahama and expected to change Ghana’s dependency on sugar imports never happened.
“How can the NDC deceive us that they gave sugar to the Komenda Chief who is now saying he doesn’t even know the colour of sugar the factory produced or is sugar something he cannot buy,” he quizzed.
“The forensic audit on this canker is ready and very soon it will be released and everyone will hear of it with officials found culpable to be made to answer,” he said in an interview on Accra-based radio, Neat FM monitored by Adomonline.com.
The Komenda Sugar Factory was closed down a few weeks after commissioning and has remained closed due to lack of sugar cane for processing.
Meanwhile, the Government on Tuesday, November 26, 2019, handed over the factory to an Indian firm, Park Aggrotech Company Limited based in Ghana and a subsidiary of the Skylark Group of companies.
The company won the bid to manage the sugar factory and breathe life into it after a three-and-half year break.