DESIST FROM DIVERTING AGRICULTURAL INPUTS (PAGE 43, JUNE 28, 2010)

STOREKEEPERS of the Cocoa Inputs Company Limited (CICL) have been advised to desist from any attempt or inducement to sell fertilisers and other agricultural inputs meant for farmers to prospective smugglers.
They have also been urged to be more vigilant and expose those who are involved in the smuggling of dried cocoa beans to neighbouring Cote d’ Ivoire and across other borders.
The Managing Director of CICL, Mr Samuel Amuzu, who gave the advice in Sunyani, explained that the sale of inputs meant for the production of cocoa and the smuggling of the cocoa beans would negatively hamper the expected attainment of 1,000,000 tonnes of the commodity by 2012.
Addressing the fifth national awards ceremony organised by the company for 20 deserving hardworking and honest storekeepers, Mr Amuzu urged them to expose economic saboteurs and their collaborators to the appropriate quarters for them to be dealt with in accordance with the laws of the land’.
He pointed out that, in spite of the fact that some motivational package had been put in place to encourage staff to offer their best, some storekeepers kept on embezzling sales proceeds belonging to the company, adding that while some of those miscreants had been arrested, others had absconded.
‘‘I wish to make a passionate appeal to all to volunteer relevant information which will lead to the arrest of those on the run.It is an open secret that some of you know their hideouts,as well as what they have used the stolen money for,” he noted.
Mr Amuzu, however, disclosed that the company increased its turnover by 27.8 per cent over that of 2008 and also exceeded its budget by 18.8 per cent.
Mr Kwame Obeng Adjinah,the National Co-ordinator of the cocoa diseases and Pests Control Project of the COCOBOD appealed to the storekeepers to ensure that fertilisers which had been subsidised by the government by 57 percent even at the new price of GH¢25.00 per bag,are sold to only genuine farmers.