Auditor-General Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu in his report on road contracts awarded to contractors in cocoa growing areas for the period between 2015 and 2021, amounted to a total of GHS 18.2bn.
This is against the budgeted amount of GHS 2.91bn – some 525 percentage points increment over the initial budget.
According to the Auditor-General, to mitigate the challenge of poor road conditions in cocoa-growing areas, the Government via COCOBOD launched the Cocoa Road Improvement Project (CRIP) to improve some 2,900km of roads to ensure smooth conveyance of cocoa beans from the farms to purchasing centres and avoid post-harvest losses.
COCOBOD however, awarded over 500 contracts (through single source procurement and restricted tendering) for a total length of 7,054km of roads for improvement at a total contract sum of GHS 18.2bn.
The Auditor-General in his report notes that most of the road projects have been left uncompleted by contractors given the shortfall in funding from COCOBOD.
According to the Auditor-General in his report, COCOBOD could have achieved cost savings through more effective procurement management practices, better supervision, and monitoring to ensure road projects were completed within time and specified quality.
I have made recommendations to COCOBOD to bring about improvement in their activities on the roads ongoing and yet to be awarded,” added the Auditor-General.
