Management of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) says it will be submitting written-off values of some expired agro-chemicals and fertilizers to Parliament for a retrospective approval.
The management’s comments come on the back of Auditor-General’s report which indicated that the institutions’ Board of Directors failed to seek parliamentary approval before writing off the values of the said agro-chemicals and fertilizers which amounted to Ghc23,957, 520.65.
In its statement issued in reaction to the Auditor-General’s report, COCOBOD said it “sought approval from the Board of Directors to write off the value of the expired agro-inputs” from its books when an internal audit revealed that the products in question had expired from volume in stock.
Below is the full statement by the management
REJOINDER: AUDITOR-GENERAL’S REPORT ON EXPIRED CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS AT COCOBOD
The Auditor General, in his report on the Public Accounts of Ghana: Public Boards, Corporations and other Statutory Institutions for the period ended December31, 2020 indicated that expired fertilizers and agro-chemicals valued at Ghc23.9 million had been written off from the books of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) by the Board of Directors in 2018 without parliamentary approval.
The report has since been re-published by various media houses and online portals as well as social and political commentators across the country. We wish to update Ghanaians, especially our cherished cocoa farmers and other stakeholders with the facts behind the said report.
COCOBOD procures fertilizers and agro-chemicals for distribution to cocoa farmers across the cocoa regions. Usually, these agro-chemicals and fertilizers procured are distributed and applied the same year.
When the current Management took over administration in 2017, it was surprised to find out that there were significant volumes of chemicals and fertilizers in stock. It therefore caused an audit to be conducted on the items which revealed that some fertilizers and agro-chemicals valued at Ghc23,957, 520.65 had expired.
Management subsequently sought approval from the Board of Directors to write off the value of the expired agro-inputs from the books of COCOBOD, an approval which was duly granted.
Management is working with the Board of Directors for onward submission to Parliament for retrospective approval of the write-off through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
We wish to assure our stakeholders that prudent measures have been put in place to prevent the recurrence of issues of this nature.