Mrs. Cecilia Bannerman, Minister of Manpower, Development and Employment on Friday said her ministry is very much concerned about the plight of Ghana Co-operative Marketing Association (GCMA) and is determined to assist in resuscitating the organisation because of its potential contribution to employment generation in the cocoa industry.
She said the GCMA has made enormous contributions to the development of the cocoa industry and the co-operative movement in the country, especially during the colonial period and the immediate post independence era.
Mrs. Bannerman made these remarks when she inaugurated a seven-member Crisis Management Team (CMT) to run the affairs of the association for a one-year term which could be extended if they perform creditably.
She said the organisation has had a chequered history with successes and failures. It established the first indigenous bank, the Ghana Co-operative Bank, which is now under liquidation to finance its operations and also assist in the formation of the other types of co-operatives such as the Co-operative Consumer wholesale and the Co-operative Mutual Insurance Society.
The then GCMA administration exhibited a high level of efficiency, professionalism as well as honesty and as a result built a solid base of assets to facilitate its operation and by 1960 it was marketing about 40 percent of the total cocoa output in the country.
Mrs Bannerman said the woes of the GCMA started with the confiscation of its assets in 1961 and 1984 and its banishment from the cocoa trade as a result of the introduction of the unitary cocoa buying system.
She said it has itself to blame for its woes because of its poor management, misapplication of cocoa funds and embezzlements.
Mrs Bannerman explained that the performance of GCMA continued to deteriorate to the extent that for five years, the organisation had not been able to purchase cocoa and this culminated in the withdrawal of its agency licence by the Ghana Cocoa Board.
She lamented that various audit reports have catalogued misdemeanours within the administration of GCMA membership, and rampant lawsuits to unseat the association's management committee as a result of perceived mismanagement have also contributed to the mess of the GCMA.
The executive members are Dr. Ofei-Ansah, chairman, Mr K.A. Quainoo and Mr Albert Prempeh all Ministry's nominees, while Mr S.K. Yeboah, Nana Kwarteng Amaning GCMA Committee's nominees, with Mr Cletus Adadzi and Mr Ofori Kuraga GCMA concerned members' nominees.
