COCOBOD denies wrongdoing in purchase of insecticides

The management of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has denied any wrongdoing in the matter of the purchase of insecticides for cocoa farms.

A statement issued by the management on Tuesday, November 17 said its attention has been drawn to a document circulating on several online and social media platforms purported to emanate from the Financial Intelligence Centre Ghana, alleging wrongdoing in the firm’s award of a contract for the procurement of Akate Insecticides to Agri-Plus Horizon Farm Limited through sole-sourcing.

“The documents further allege that there is suspicion that the decision by COCOBOD to sole-source the contract to Agri-plus may have been found on the grounds of nepotism and/or trade-based money laundering.

“We wish to state that the decision to sole-source insecticides and other chemicals for COCOBOD operations is based on COCOBOD’s needs for a specific purpose,” the statement said.

It added: “COCOBOD only procures insecticides or chemicals that have been tested and certified by the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) and it should therefore be noted different insecticides have different active ingredient (The killing agents).

“Different levels of concentrated active ingredients, different rate of application per hectare of cocoa farm and different manufacturing sources. Some products have systemic effects while others take effects on contacts with the insects. Some products are also formulated as cocktails and have both systemic and contact properties combined.

“A company that holds the CHRIEG certified for a particular product has proprietary rights in the product and consequently COCOBOD can procure the product from only that company.”