COCOBOD Under Fire

Tony Fofie, CEO of COCOBOD

Some aggrieved workers of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) are asking the government to remove their Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as his actions would in no time collapse the entity, which is the regulator of the cocoa industry.

The workers, who pleaded anonymity, alleged that some top directors of the organisation who are perceived by Tony Fofie as anti-National Democratic Congress (NDC) element had been transferred from their departments to other divisions and feared that the axe would fall on more staff.

Report say so far two directors of the General Services Department have already been transferred to the Special Duties Department, which was created by the CEO.

Their 'crime' was said to be failing to circumvent the bidding process in favour of business sympathizers of the NDC.

The Director of Audit has also been asked to go home because the CEO suspected he had leaked a story about the organisation to the media.

'These constitute an act of victimization because anybody who is seen to be an anti-NDC element at COCOBOD is transferred to other divisions. If this trend should continue, COCOBOD will collapse in no time,' one of the workers warned in an interview with CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE in Accra last week.

The irritate workers further told this paper that the CEO had also threatened to sack some personnel of the organisation for discovering a corrupt deal to which he was a party.

Mr. Fofie is alleged to have sworn heaven and earth to sack Thomas Dandzo, Director of Special Services of COCOBOD; his deputy, Joe Nsiah and all officers in the Special Services Department, who embarked on an investigative exercise that discovered a shady deal in which a certain Tom Brown, the CEO's close pal and a foot-soldier of the NDC, squandered monies paid for the operations of an anti-cocoa smuggling vigilante squad.

The infuriated workers said some statistics churned out last year by the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Control Unit of the organisation revealed that up to 60 percent of cocoa produced in the Western region last year were smuggled to Ivory Coast.

It was therefore in reaction to this situation that the COCOBOD, in the early part of this year, established the Anti-Cocoa Smuggling Vigilante Unit, led by Mr Brown. Majority of the squad members are NDC foot-soldiers, they noted.

The squad, which was disbanded on May 15, this year, had its members stationed at Dormaa Ahenkro, Elubo, Enchi, Juaboso and some selected cocoa growing areas in the Volta region.

The workers continued that the squad was provided with all the logistics it needed to effectively carry out its duties for a period of four months.

'The logistics provided by COCOBOD included six vehicles, 32 mobile phones, Wellington boots and other things.'

However, the afore-stated items never got to members of the squad, the aggrieved workers disclosed, adding these were believed to have been hijacked by Tom Brown.

Also, an amount of GH¢100 was agreed to be paid as allowances to each of the members of the squad who initially numbered 100.

But later, Mr Brown was said to have asked for another 100 members to join the squad bringing their total number to 200. COCOBOD obliged and paid every dime owed them by way of allowances.

Though the 100 members have been disbanded since May 15, 2011, they have been paid only for two months leaving arrears of GH¢20,000 to be paid to them.

Given the GH¢100 paid per each person their allowances will amount to GH¢10,000. This amount, multiplied by four months, stands at GH¢40,000. But with the payment made by COCOBOD for the additional 100 members, the figure becomes GH¢80,000. This is because Tom Brown tendered the total of members as 200.

Furthermore, a weekly provision of GH¢200 was paid by COCOBOD to fuel the vigilante group's six vehicles for the four months but this money never got to the drivers.

Instead, the fuel cost had to be borne by District CEOs and Regional COCOBOD offices in the catchment areas.

An amount of GH¢18,000 was also paid to the vigilante group to train its members but the amount could also not be traced.

'Brown was contracted by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of COCOBOD and is therefore accountable directly to him,' one of the workers alleged, stating that officers who raise questions about Brown's misappropriation of funds allocated for the casuals workers and other miscellaneous were usually victimized.

Commenting on the unfolding saga, the workers stated: 'Mr Dandzo's 'crime' was the launching of an investigation into the operation of the vigilante group and the discoveries it made.'

Meanwhile, information reaching this paper indicates that Mr Fofie is seeking to replace Mr Dandzo with a retired civil servant even though there are a lot of qualified people in the Quality Control Division.

The workers have therefore called on Government to look into the matter and stop the unnecessary transfers which could jeopardize the organization's attempts to help Ghana boost cocoa production to 1 million tonnes by 2012.

Attempts to get the side of the CEO and Tom Brown since last week proved futile as the reporters were told that the CEO was out in a meeting. He also refused to answer his phone calls and the text a message that we sent him yesterday.

By Felix Dela Klutse & Samuel Boadi