Communications Director for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Buaben Asamoah has accused former President John Dramani Mahama for bastardizing the innovative road infrastructure project(Cocoa Roads Project).
According to Buabeng Asamoah,the project was initiated by former President John Agyekum Kuffour to create more access and improve roads for cocoa-growing communities in the country.
This accusation was provoked by Mr. Mahama’s own daring stance, demanding the Akufo Addo government publishes reports on its audit of the cocoa roads.
In responding to this statement, Yaw Buaben Asamoah in a press conference held in Accra yesterday said the previous administration managed the rather innovative program poorly and overwhelmed the funding capacities of government to sustain it.
He explained that the Cocoa Road projects which were managed under COCOBOD Infrastructural Development Trust Fund were misapplied.
“The original project was to get roads to cocoa intake points constructed to facilitate the transportation of the produce but what we realized under John Mahama was a total misappropriation of the funds to roads other than those that serve cocoa-growing communities.”
Mr. Asamoah further argued that the average funding limit for the five-year project under the COCOBOD Infrastructural Development Trust Fund was just GHC500 million but was grossly exceeded by over 60 percent, creating a huge deficit to government’s kitty.
“the approved annual amount averaged 500 million cedis for the COCOBOD Infrastructural Development Trust Fund for the entire five year period of the program. Indeed, John Mahama committed 3.2 billion cedis [64 percent of that], of a total fund that he did not have, to just seventy-four (74) projects awarded by Ghana Highway Authority, not the Department of Feeder Roads,” Mr. Asamoah referenced section of the audit report
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