Stephen Opuni Charged With 27 Counts Of Causing Financial Loss
Dr. Stephen Kwabena Opuni, Former CEO of COCOBOD |
One of the first government appointees to be sacked by Akufo-Addo
administration has been hauled before the Accra High Court and charged
with causing financial loss to the state.
Former COCBOD CEO, Dr Stephen Kwabena Opuni and one Seidu Agongo
together are facing 27 charges, reports Graphiconline, Wednesday.
The case is said to be called on Friday, March 23, 2018 at the High Court.
In February 2017, the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO)
froze the assets of Dr Opuni as part of investigations into his
tenure as CEO of COCOBOD.
The charges against the two come a week after President Nana
Akufo-Addo told Ghanaians in his address at the 61st Independence
Anniversary celebrations, to expect more prosecutions of persons deemed
to have engaged in the misappropriation of public funds.
According to President Akufo-Addo, “with the office of the Special
Prosecutor now in place, we can expect more prosecutions for corruption
in the coming months, and public officials, present and past, should be
on notice that they will be held accountable for their stewardship of
our public finances.”
“Can you imagine what we can do with GH¢5.4 billion? It can certainly
finance the Free SHS for five years,” he said while touching on the
recent audit by the Auditor General into the liabilities of the
Ministries, Departments and Agencies which led to the disallowance of
some GH¢5.4 billion of claims.
Dr. Opuni, appointed on November 30, 2013 to head COCOCBOD, is
alleged to have mismanaged the cocoa sector during four-year tenure.
Dr. Opuni who once headed the Food and Drugs Authority was relieved
of his post on January 12, 2017, barely a week after the Akufo-Addo
regime took office. The sack letter signed by Executive Secretary to the
President, Nana Asante Bediatuo, ordered Dr. Opuni to vacate his office
by 5pm the following day, January 13.
His passport was seized and was subsequently invited by the Economic
and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) where he reportedly endured some
six-long hours of questioning on a wide range of issues, including
alleged massive corruption in the cocoa sector.
Dr. Stephen Opuni, is said to be the main brain behind the award of
the contracts totaling about $512 million during the transition period.
In March 2017, the government cancelled a contract worth GH¢255
million awarded by the John Dramani Mahama administration for the supply
of farm inputs to cocoa farmers upon the advice of the newly
inaugurated Board of Ghana Cocoa Board chaired by Hackman Owusu
Agyemang.
The contract was for the supply of pesticides, weedicides,
fungicides, insecticides and fertilizers to COCOBOD for onward
distribution to cocoa farmers throughout the country.
However, it was later detected that six companies involved in the
supply of the chemicals all belong to one person, necessitating the
abrogation, Mr. Hackman Owusu-Agyemang revealed.
In 2016, the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU) and the
General Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU) alleged that Dr. Opuni sold
some of the cash crops and kept the proceeds.
According to them, such deals had cost the country in excess of $10
million, adding that the monies could have been used to develop the
country.
Kingsley Nkansah, General Secretary of GAWU, in April last year,
disclosed at a meeting with journalists that “thousands of tonnes of
cocoa are sold by the management of Cocobod which is hidden from the
government and for which no proper accounts are maintained either. This
is known as Special Sample Residue.”
He continued, “The Special Sample Residue is done by drawing an
average of 0.3kg of cocoa beans from each bag taken over and sold by the
Cocoa Marketing Company. So for every 1,000 tonnes of cocoa, they
[management] get on the average 4.6875 tonnes, an equivalent of 75
bags.”
-Myjoyonline
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