Where is the audit report on the cocoa roads project? – Franklin Cudjoe asks

Franklin Cudjoe, the President of IMANI Africa has joined calls for the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to publish the audit report it conducted on the various cocoa road projects

In a short post on his Twitter page, Franklin Cudjoe asked “Where is the 'Cocoa Roads' Audit Report?”

Shortly after assuming power in 2017, the NPP government through the new leadership of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) ordered a value for money audit into the various cocoa road contracts awarded by the previous government.

The government, which suspended all the contracts argued then that the purpose of the audit was to ensure that the nation was not overpaying for those projects.

However, three years on after the audit was done, the public is yet to be informed on the findings and conclusions from the investigations.

Last week, flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama demanded COCOBOD to make public what it discovered from the audit.

Mahama in a tour of the Western North Region accused the Akufo-Addo administration government of deliberately abandoning projects started by his government.

“They abandoned the projects because of sabotage and politics. Because they realized we are close to elections, they have started work on the roads again. I want to know where the audit report is. I am here at Bopa asking the NPP government to publish the audit reports on cocoa roads for everyone to see,” the former president noted.

“The laws of Ghana indicate that if a government starts a project and loses the elections, it is incumbent on the next government to continue with the projects. But this is not what we are seeing. When the NDC was voted out of power, there were a lot of contractors working on projects, but when this government took over, they halted all of them, saying it was auditing them. It has been four years now and I believe that even if it was the Bible we were reading, we would have covered from Genesis to Revelations by now,” he added.

In response to the demand by Mahama, the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Cocoa Board, Joseph Boahen Aidoo asked him and Ghanaians to apply for the report if they want it.

“…why do we have to publish it? This was COCOBOD’s operation, it was intended for an administrative purpose, if you need it, you just have to apply for it. “Nobody is hiding anything from anybody with respect to this report…,” Boahen Aidoo retorted.