The 2022 Auditor-General’s report has unveiled a concerning issue where GH¢7,192,235 received from individual cocoa farmers for the supply of Cocoa Hi Tech (fertilizers) cannot be traced to the respective co-operatives they belong to.
The Hi-Tech/CODAPEC program mandates Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) and Farmer Co-operatives to make payments into designated bank accounts. These payments are meant to be made by the co-operatives or LBCs, not the individual members.
However, in this program, fertilizers procured by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) are distributed to farmers through LBCs and co-operatives. Some farmers who are members of these co-operatives have been making direct payments for the fertilizers they receive, using their individual personal names instead of the co-operative or LBC name. This practice has made it challenging to trace and update the indebtedness of the co-operatives or LBCs with the payments received.
The report highlights that this practice creates difficulties in determining the outstanding balances of each co-operative or LBC with COCOBOD. Furthermore, it opens up the possibility for co-operatives or LBCs and their members to default on fertilizer payments without proper notice, as COCOBOD is unable to track their outstanding balances accurately.
In response to the report’s findings, COCOBOD management acknowledged that GH¢7,192,235 had been paid into the organization’s bank account by various cocoa farmers without indicating their respective co-operative groups.
The majority of these payments were related to the period from 2018 to 2021, making it difficult to trace the farmers and their co-operatives. COCOBOD staff was subsequently tasked to work with Community Extension Agents (CEAs) to identify the co-operatives the farmers belonged to, allowing for the allocation of the payments to the appropriate co-operative accounts.
An amount of GH¢2,118,600 has been allocated to specific co-operatives, reducing the unallocated balance to GH¢5,073,635. However, there is still work to be done to resolve the remaining discrepancies.
