Oda (E/R), Sept. 29, GNA- Cocoa farmers at Gye Wani Nkwanta near Oda have accused Purchasing Clerks (PCs) of the various Licensed Cocoa Buying Companies in the area of cheating, anytime they go to them to sell their cocoa beans.

The farmers said the PCs very often cheated them through the adjustment of their weighing scales to their (farmers) disadvantage and also failed to pay them cocoa bonuses due them. This came to light when the Control Unit of the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease (CSSVD) organised a farmer's rally at Gye Wani Nkwanta for farmers in the area.

The rally was to educate the farmers on how to maintain their farms for higher productivity, which would boost the tonnage of cocoa beans required by the COCOBOD from that part of the district. When contacted, Nana Asare Bentum III, Chief of the town, complained bitterly about the attitude of some of the PCs, and said very soon, they would meet them to find a lasting solution to the problem. The farmers who pleaded anonymity for fear of being victimized by the PCs, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), shortly after the rally that, some of them had hanging scales, which they use to weight the beans before sending it to the cocoa sheds or societies to weigh, but most times it does not tally with theirs.

According to them, the Ghana Standard Board (GSB) did not certify some of the scales at the societies, because each time the GSB officials come to town, the Clerks intentionally close their sheds and disappear. This situation, they claim, made it difficult for the field officers of GSB, who checked the sheds once in a year, to trace and remove the bad scales from the system.

They explained that if a scale was tagged with a green label, it was supposed to be accurate and those tagged with red label meant the scale was faulty or had been adjusted. They appealed to the GSB authorities to endeavour to tag all inspected scales, because very often the PCs told the farmers that though their scales had been checked, they were awaiting the tags from their various District Officers. The farmers said on a few occasions the GSB officials did not tag the certified scales, with the excuse that they have run short of the tags or labels.

"We sometimes become convinced that the GSB is doing much or were deliberately refusing to tag the scales, because most of the weighing scales in the sheds here do not have both the 'green or red' tag". On the bonus, they said there was a clear indication that the Clerks misused the farmers' bonuses after collecting the monies from the District Officers for disbursement. "They refuse to pay us with the excuse that they have not collected the monies from their companies", the farmers said. The farmers accused the PCs of finding faults with them only when it was time to disburse the bonuses and called on the COCOBOD to investigate their allegations and put in place measures to check the cheats. 29 Sept. 07