George Kyei Frimpong
30 November 2004
Over 50,000 cocoa farmers in Ghana whose farms were uprooted under the cocoa swollen shoot rehabilitation programme, have cried foul over the inability of the government to pay them compensation worth about ¢11billion.
According to the farmers, even though funds had been made available from the financiers, the World Bank (WB) and the European Union (EU), the management of the Cocoa Service Division of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) had failed to pay the compensation since 2001.
The farmers noted that no official had any other cause to divert the funds since they had satisfied all the preconditions.
Speaking on behalf of the farmers from the Central Region, Nana A. K. Frimpong, in an interview with the Chronicle, said, "every planted farm on numerous occasions was inspected by the various district staff members and counter inspected by Mr. Antwi-Adjei, the regional inspector and other officials detailed by him from the regional office."
He said teams from the head office of the Cocoa Service, WB and EU auditors had inspected these farms and expressed satisfaction.
He leveled the accusation that, "in persistent search for our compensation, every official we approached from the district offices through the regional office to the head office had his own story to tell at a particular time but on other occasions, the same people came out with different sugar-coated stories, thereby maintaining double standards."
Nana Frimpong said recently, the Deputy Director of the seed production unit of COCOBOD met the farmers and assured them that the funds would be paid in two weeks but the funds did not come and nothing was heard from him though he had boasted in some media that the money was on its way.
He reiterated that, "In fact, it is time they ceased belittling our intelligence with their inimical self-imposed policies which are injurious to the benefits of this viable project in particular and the cocoa industry as a whole." He cautioned all officials involved in the delay and non-payment of their grants, to turn a new leaf and pay them before they resorted to demonstration.
The Deputy Director of the Cocoa Service, F. E. Nsiah, when contacted by the Chronicle, said the money delayed because most of the signatories, for some time, were not in the country to sign for the disbursement of the money.
He said he did not lie to the farmers as reported but the farmers misconstrued him, adding that he was talking about the first phase of the project, which the farmers were paid recently. According to him, the expected money was in the pipeline and would be ready for disbursement very soon. He confirmed that it had already been paid by the sponsors except that it had not reflected in their accounts.
Mr. Nsiah noted that there was no way officials of COCOBOD could misappropriate the funds because auditors from the EU monitored their activities.
He denied that the COCOBOD had not been paying the farmers since 2001, defending that the only outstanding debt which was about ¢11billion had accrued from only last year's delay.
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