Story: Today Research Desk
We turn our searchlight on COCOBOD. Recently, the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana’s foremost cocoa trading entity announced to the nation that COCOBOD will no longer engage in constructing what have become known as cocoa roads.
This caught our attention. So we have been asking, did the board of directors sit, receive and review an objective paper from management citing the issues encountered, experience gained, pluses and minuses before that decision was made? We want to know. We are also interested in finding out if it took the IMF and the EU to push COCOBOD to make such a far reaching decision?
The Today Newspaper has for the past several months been investigating and doing research on governance in the public sector, particularly the financial regulatory section. We have made contact with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), Bank of Ghana (BoG), National Insurance Commission (NIC), National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) and others. We have sent questionnaires to the heads of these regulatory agencies. Some of them are resisting the attempts to pull them into the public light. We will continue to publish the names and photographs of the directors of state institutions and follow up to promote accountability.
It is the unfortunate view that it is only politicians who must be held accountable for their stewardship of positions and organizations they are elected or appointed to hold.
The directors are given allowances and get perks some of which are generous. We want every man and woman who accepts these directorships to know that they are part of the system – an essential part at that. Therefore, they must pay attention and give sound advice that will promote the wellbeing of the organizations they have become a part of.
We have prepared a questionnaire we are sending to COCOBOD’s directors to find out what they have been doing, their impact on the organization’s decision-making and the interactions they have been having with management. We want to know how they evaluate the performance of the CEO and top management and the overall results of COCOBOD in cocoa production, the financing of purchases and financial standing (including payments to cocoa road contractors).
The directors we are sending the questionnaires to are:
1. Mr Peter Manu- Bord Chairman
2. Mr. Joseph Boahene Aidoo, CEO COCOBOD
3. Dr Ernest Addison, Governor, BoG
4. Mr Charles Adu Boahene, former Minister of State, Ministry of Finance
5. Mr Yaw Addo Frimpong, Deputy Minister of Food &Agriculture
6. Mr Herbert Krapah, Deputy Minister of Energy
7. Mr Kwadjo Asante MP, Suhum
8. Nana Adwoa Dokua
9.Nana Johnson Mensa
10. Mr Edward Okoh Ampofo.
