COCOBOD probes disappearance of 3000 bags of cocoa

The Ghana Cocoa Marketing Board (COCOBOD) has set up a committee to investigate the circumstances under which 3000 bags of cocoa, valued at GH¢300,000 got missing from its warehouse during the last season. The paper learnt that the disappearance was uncovered when figures that were tendered by the Cocoa Marketing Company (CMC) and the Quality Control Officers showed discrepancies.

A source told The Chronicle that CMC is responsible for warehousing and external marketing of cocoa. The company also takes custody of the bulk of cocoa that has been purchased by the buying companies. Quality Control officers are then invited to take samples to determine the quality of the commodity. The Chronicle learnt that the number of bags the Quality Control Unit claimed to have sampled far exceeded the official bags declared by the CMB.

So far there is no clue to what caused the disappearance of the cocoa as officers responsible have been escaping from disciplinary action, using flying way bill as a ruse. Flying waybill means presenting a receipt to mean that something has been received whilst nothing has been received.

When the paper contacted the Public Affairs Manager, Mr. Kwasi Kwakye, he confirmed to this reporter that the COCOBOD has set up a committee to investigate the issue. He said the figures that disappeared this year are the least recorded over all the previous seasons. According to him it is difficult to identify where the problem came from because there are numerous gates where cocoa is purchased.