Workers of various unions in the cocoa industry have accused the COCOBOD Chief Executive, Dr Stephen Opuni, of perpetrating dubious deals that have led to the loss of millions to the government.
The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) and the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) revealed at a press conference in Accra on Friday 29 April that COCOBOD has secretly sold cocoa worth $10million last year, alone.
The General Secretary of GAWU, Kingsley Nkansah has, therefore, asked President John Dramani Mahama to institute investigations into the matter.
“Thousands of tonnes of cocoa are sold by the management of COCOBOD, which [are] hidden from the government and to which no proper accounts are made.
“The two unions are very responsible, there are many things we hear and we do our investigations before we take steps. We have written to the minister of employment expressing our concerns about happenings in COCOBOD. We have also copied the Chief of Staff and had formal and informal conversations with various people who matter in government. It may interest you to know that this issue has been presented to the Attorney General (AG) before, and also [to the] Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
“This is what we know and placed before AG and CHRAJ. I have copies of documents to that effect that the allegations have been presented. It is only out of the investigations that the allegations that are on paper will become materialised facts,” he stated.
