EOCO invites more businessmen

EOCO

The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) under its new Executive Director, ACP KK Amoah, has in its latest strings of invitations to some businessmen asked, Seidu Agongo to report to its headquarters Monday morning for an important discussion.

DAILY GUIDE can confirm that this latest invitation is in connection with an ongoing investigation into shady COCOBOD contracts about which so much has been published in the media in recent times.

Ali Seidu and Kofi Job were the first to be invited by EOCO regarding the contracts awarded them during the previous political regime because of their links with the former president and his brother, smacking unwholesome practices.

The COCOBOD contracts of roads and supply of fertilizers were sole-sourced and in a manner thought to have breached value for money principles with larger chunk of the contracts going to the three individuals.

Dr. Stephen Opuni, the former Chief Executive of COCOBOD, is at the centre of the alleged instances of financial improprieties at the national cocoa management institution and under whose aegis many contracts were awarded in breach of best procurement practices.

Interestingly, even after the invitations to the affected businessmen were published in DAILY GUIDE earlier, the newspaper was put on the spot by some pro-National Democratic Congress (NDC) publications which claimed that the story was concocted and without basis.

The businessmen honoured the invitations albeit and had one-on-one discussions with officials of the anti-graft state institution which this paper can confirm has gone far with its probe. In the next few days important details of the investigations it is thought, would be made public, considering the grounds covered by the investigators so far. Many calls had been made on the freshly minted government of President Nana Akufo-Addo to without delay take action on the many instances of shady contracts at COCOBOD. It is alleged some of the fertilizers supplied under one of the contracts turned out to be ironically killer inputs which caused enormous anguish to farmers.