Madam Bernice Debrah Ashong, an Administrator at Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), says the entity’s sole sourcing and thresholds for the purchase of fertilizers are done per the Procurement Act.

She said the Procurement Unit of COCOBOD prepared composite letters with all the names of the fertilizer companies to the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) attached with their documents for approvals.

Madam Ashong, a subpoenaed witness for Seidu Agongo, was speaking in his evidence in chief in the trial involving Dr. Stephen Opuni, a former Chief Executive of COCOBOD, led by Benson Nutsukpui, Counsel for Agongo. Dr. Opuni and Agongo are facing 27 charges, including defrauding by false pretenses, willfully causing financial loss to the state, money laundering, and corruption by a public officer in contravention of the Public Procurement Act.

They have both pleaded not guilty to the charges and are on a GH¢300,000.00 self-recognizance bail each.

Madam Ashong, who is a Senior Administrator at Koforidua, said the Procurement Unit, per the structure of the Board, reported directly to the Director of Finance.

She said these chemicals were dealt with in a unit of the Board called the CODEPEC and HITECH Unit. She said at the inception of a purchase of fertilizers, the Procurement Unit would request the CODEPEC/HITECH Unit to provide the list of fertilizer companies they intended to procure from. The witness said the list would include the type of fertilizers, name of the company, price, and the quantity to be purchased.

She said on the receipt of the list, the Unit sent a draft letter to the companies requesting them to provide their best offer in terms of price, SSNIT certificates, their performance guarantee, among others.

“These letters are submitted to the Director of Finance for vetting and confirmation before submitting to the office of the Chief Executive,” she added. She said the letters would be distributed to the companies for their responses to be submitted to the Office of the Chief Executive and then forwarded to the Director of Finance and back to the Procurement Unit.

The witness said after receiving their responses, it was then put together in the form of a document and then forwarded to the Entity Tender Committee of the Board for approval.

She said when these requests were approved by the Committee, another composite letter was prepared by the Procurement Unit for the Director of Finance for vetting and confirmation and then submitted to the Central Tender Review Board (CTRB) for concurrent approval.

The composite letter includes the type of fertilizers each company needs to supply, the quantity, the price, and the names of all the approved companies. She said based on the approval of the CTRB, their approval was forwarded to the Office of the Chief Executive.

The witness, who was a former Procurement Manager, said the document goes through Management to the Director of Finance Office to the Procurement Unit. “When we received the approval, we prepared a draft letter for notification of approval for the individual fertilizer company on the approved list,” she said.

She said on the notification of award, the companies are requested to provide performance guarantees and other terms and conditions provided, and these letters are forwarded to the Director of Finance for vetting and confirmation before submitting to the Office of the Chief Executive for signature.

Madam Ashong said the purchase of machines and insecticides also went through the same methods, but when additional information was needed, the Board would require it from the supplier, like an EPA certificate.