Former managers of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) are facing mounting scrutiny after failing to respond to a series of audit queries from the Audit Service since last year.

According to sources within the current administration, the former officials declined to provide explanations for questions concerning procurement and financial management under the previous leadership, headed by Joseph Boahen Aidoo, which left a colossal GH¢32.91 billion in liabilities upon its exit in January 2025.

The failure to address the audit findings has prompted the present management, led by Dr Randy Abbey, to refer some of the alleged infractions to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) for further investigation and possible criminal prosecution.

Some of the procurement deals were awarded to Dr Joseph Siaw Agyapong, the founder of the Jospong Group and owner of Accra-based Metro TV, who also happens to be the former boss of the current COCOBOD Chief Executive, Dr Abbey.

The Audit Service is understood to have identified serious irregularities following its examination of the Board’s accounts. However, the former administration reportedly refused to respond to the queries, leaving them unresolved.

Among the key issues under review is the procurement of farm inputs and equipment valued at hundreds of millions of dollars during Mr Aidoo’s tenure.

These included slashers, pruners, jute sacks, insecticides, fertilisers, solar lanterns, and Wellington boots, which were ostensibly distributed free to cocoa farmers.

Sources indicate that some of the items, particularly the slashers and pruners, were rejected by farmers, who reportedly found them unsuitable and opted instead for traditional cutlasses, meaning no due diligence was done on the items ahead of their purchase.

The current administration has also disclosed that it inherited debts in excess of GH¢32 billion from the previous management.

It is further alleged that although the audit queries were initially raised, there was little effort to compel the former officials to respond before the matter was escalated.

Government officials were said to have been divided over whether to await responses from the individuals concerned or to formally capture the issues in the Auditor-General’s report for submission to the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament for scrutiny.

In a related development, sources claim that Mr Aidoo retained possession of an official vehicle assigned to him after leaving office and only returned it after being informed that the Bureau of National Investigations would be engaged to retrieve it.

The Daily Post newspaper reported yesterday that the former CEO of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, returned one of the Board’s vehicles he had secretly taken when he left office 14 months ago.

The report suggests he returned the vehicle last Friday, only after being informed that COCOBOD had found it missing from its fleet and reported the matter to the BNI.

Last Friday, 27 February 2026, a former bodyguard, now a uniformed police officer, secretly returned the vehicle to COCOBOD’s headquarters in Accra at dawn. Around 5:00 a.m., the officer drove the 2018 BMW 7 Series into the COCOBOD compound and handed the keys over to the Chief Transport Officer.

Later, when he was asked for the vehicle’s documents, Joseph Boahen Aidoo sent them along with a letter explaining that he took the car because, on his way out of office, he wrote to the Human Resource Directorate of COCOBOD expressing his desire to purchase it in accordance with the policy that allows a senior officer to buy his or her official saloon car when leaving office if it is over two years old.

However, the Daily Post said its investigations suggest that the ex-CEO’s claim is false; he did not write any such letter to the Human Resource Directorate of COCOBOD expressing his intention to buy the car. The department has no record of such a letter.

To acquire the official saloon car a senior officer has been using, the officer must write to the Board to express interest in purchasing the vehicle.

The vehicle will then be evaluated to determine its sale price, after which the Board must approve the sale. Payment can then be made, after which a change of ownership is recorded in the documentation before the vehicle is handed over. However, none of this happened.

Ironically, at the last meeting of the outgoing Board of COCOBOD on 24 December 2024, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, then a member of the COCOBOD Board, tabled the promotion of about a hundred workers of the organisation but did not see it fit to bring before the Board his desire to acquire his official saloon car.

Rather, he simply took it away without notifying anyone, used it for fourteen months, and returned it only after he realised the BNI would soon be on his heels.