Kuagbenu describes NSS farm audit report as “bogus”

The former Executive Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), Vincent Kuagbenu, has described as “bogus”, a report by the Auditor General, in which the Scheme’s farm projects were found to have incurred losses and also not lived up to their objectives.

In Kuagbenu’s view, that report must be “thrown into the dustbin”.

The report, presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, faulted the management of the NSS, during Kuagbenu’s tenure, for failing to do feasibility studies before embarking on the Scheme’s various farm projects.

The Auditor General also said the NSS invested Ghc600,000 into the farms but made only Ghc80,000.

Rebutting the findings of the report Tuesday, Kuagbenu said the NSS made as much as Ghc1.3 million by selling the farm’s maize produce, alone, to the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) to feed students.

“…So Auditor General didn’t do his work…if they wanted to do proper audit, they would have gone to the farms…those records are kept at the farm level”, Kuagbenu told Super Morning Show host Kojo Yankson.

“I never took a penny or a bag or a grain to my house," he said; adding, “Apart from maize, we went into poultry."

He therefore wondered: “…What type of audit will talk about receipts and not talk about outstanding revenue?” According to him, the NSS is still receiving revenue from its farm produce more than a year after he was asked to proceed on leave.

“That report is bogus…I mean we need to be serious in this country”.