Diversion of fertilizer coupons sabotaging Planting for Food and Jobs programme
The Officer in Charge of Special Duties on the Planting for Food and Jobs(PFJs), Mr Baffour Amoh Kofi II has stated that diversion of fertilizer coupons allegedly perpetrated by some “greedy civil servants” and their accomplices involved in the implementation of the PFJs policy amounted to GH¢120 million between 2017 and 2018.
He further explained that other illegal activities that were perpetrated by the culprits included circulation of forged documents, hoarding of fertilizers, smuggling and unaccounted for fertilizer supplies which were sabotaging the PFJs,one of government's flagship programmes within the period under review.
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Addressing a Meeting of Input Dealers and other stakeholders in the Agricultural Sector at Bolgatanga on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, Mr Baffour indicated that the issue has become so serious that institutions like the Ghana Police Service, the Bureau of National Investigations, the Attorney General and the Economic and Organized Crime Office have all launched a probe into the matter.
Central Region
He said in the Central Region alone it was found out that 1,288 booklets of fertilizer coupons which amounted to GH¢ 4.296million cannot be accounted for.
Mr Baffour observed that those losses when recovered and put to good use can help to renovate all the agricultural offices in the Central Region.
He said preliminary investigations also showed that when the coupons were diverted,input dealers do not send the fertilizers to their original destination thereby creating artificial shortages and other problems in the system.
Collapse
The officer was of the view that if those illegal activities continue without being checked in the shortest possible time, the government's PFJs might run into difficulties and eventually collapse.
He expressed regret that sometimes when he gets information deep into the night about an attempted smuggling of fertilizers in a particular region he cannot wait until the next morning but immediately call the Regional Director of Food and Agriculture in charge of that affected region that same night to inform him or her for the necessary action to be taken.
“Why? Are we trying to help the system or collapse the system and sometimes it’s only a few greedy individuals who are doing that at the expense of the entire nation and her tax payers”he lamented.
Mr Baffour however used the occasion to commend all input dealers including Petasgo Enterprise in the Upper East Region who he said are cooperating with government to effectively implement the PFJ programme in the Region and the North as a whole.
Measures
The Upper East Regional Director of Food and Agriculture,Mr Francis Ennor disclosed that the Region has decided to start receiving fertilizer supplies from the end of this month(May) as part of measures to discourage people from smuggling fertilizers to other countries.
He further explained that another measure put in place was to allow only a few registered and identifiable input dealers to supply fertilizers to the six identified smuggling-prone districts in the Region.They are Bawku Municipal,Bawku West,Kassena Nankana West,Pusiga,Garu and Tempane districts.
Mr Ennor expressed optimism that those measures will ultimately help to erase the bad image of the Region regarding smuggling of fertilizers for the PFJs.
Inputs dealers
The Chief Executive Officer of Petasgo Enterprise,Mr Peter Adongo entreated stakeholders in the implementation of the PFJs to find ways of educating the security agencies to facilitate the movement of fertilizers from Accra to the North.
He noted that sometimes the harassment drivers of heavy duty vehicles go through at the various check points while bringing in the fertilizers from Tema or Accra to the North has to be discouraged because it affects the policy to some extent.
Other input dealers at the Meeting called for concrete steps to bring together input dealers and security agencies to build a common understanding on their respective roles in the implementation of the PFJs.
The Meeting was aimed at among other objectives collating ideas from the input dealers an how best to stop hoarding and smuggling of fertilizers meant for the PFJs in the Upper East Region.