GHC28m was inflated to GHC235m 'overnight' – Hackman alleges

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyeman has disclosed he has evidence that’s suggests figures for the price of “something” were changed from GHS28million to GHS235million overnight.

Mr Owusu-Agyeman, however, did not mention the names of the agency or persons involved in his claim.

Speaking at a roundtable on asset declaration organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in Accra, the former legislator called for the strengthening of laws and suggested a whistle blower empowerment clause be introduced to boost the asset declaration law.

“You can help us do it and we have to completely tighten up that system and also, the Auditor-General should be able to do value for money. As it is now, it’s only about whether you get a receipt or you don’t get a receipt. The value for money is what we are talking about in this country.

Something which cost GHS28million overnight – and I have evidence of it –becomes GHS235million; the same thing. So this is where we have the problem in this country and I believe the laws, whichever way you look at it, if we are not effectively enforcing them, if we have no whistle blowers, if we cannot assess and really question people on how they come to live by certain standards, then we have a difficulty,” he said.

For his part, the Auditor-General, Mr Daniel Yao Domelevo said his office is sifting through documents to find more evidence of financial infractions.

According to him, this is to enable him surcharge the culprits and retrieve misappropriated funds for the state.

So far, a total of eleven people have been surcharged since the Supreme Court ruled that the Auditor-General should take steps to retrieve public funds from both public and private actors.