Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
MANAGEMENT OF the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has denounced comments by the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, on the payment of Board of Directors’ fees and allowances, describing them as misleading.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP, on April 12, 2022, posted on his Facebook page that officials of COCOBOD, in one financial year, paid to themselves an amount of GH¢656,200 as “sitting, inconvenience, and overnight allowances,” and termed the development as “unpatriotic illegality.”
“Why should it ever be an inconvenience to be called to serve your country? Should that not be the greatest honour? In any case, who put a gun to anybody’s head to accept an appointment to the Ghana Cocoa Board? Also, what animal is overnight allowance?
“The Auditor-General has described these fees and allowances as illegal because, the Finance Minister has not granted approval as required under Section 9(6) of the Ghana Cocoa Board Act of 1984 as amended; sadly though, the looting continues,” Mr. Ablakwa wrote on his wall.
But in a response, the COCOBOD said it had observed with “worry the continuous discussion of a portion of the 2018 Auditor-General’s report by the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, in the media and subsequent reportage on his commentary.”
“Even though Parliament, as an institution is yet to consider the report, the MP has resorted to discussions on the matter, and in some cases making non-existing inferences from the report, only to mislead the listening and reading public,” COCOBOD said in a statement.
The statement explained that the Board of Directors, in 2017, upon swearing-in, inherited the board’s fees and allowance regime, and that this became the basis for the payment of allowances to members of the board.
On the issue of inconvenience allowance, COCOBOD stated that members were paid a tax-inclusive amount of GH¢1,500 for off-site meetings, and added that the Ministry of Finance later issued a new remuneration regime, which did not include board fees and inconvenience allowances.
“COCOBOD, in compliance with the new regime, has since stopped the payment of board fees and inconvenience allowances,” it stated, indicating, “We shall continue to comply with the board’s remuneration regime as directed by the Ministry of Finance.”
BY Ernest Kofi Adu