Editorial News of Thursday, 3 June 1999

Source: --

The Independent

In its lead story, the Independent reports that billions of cedis being proceeds from a Japanese-sponsored agricultural project, Kennedy Round Two (KR2),is missing at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

According to the paper, its painstaking investigations have established that the Ministry is unable to account for 292 billion cedis earmarked for the project.

The Independent explains that the KR2 is a grant given to the government to help boost agricultural production in Ghana. It says the project started in 1982 with an initial annual grant of 400 million Japanese yen, and since then, the Japanese Government has been giving the grant yearly.

The paper says the idea behind the project is to help farmers get agro-chemicals and agricultural machinery at one-third their original price. According to the Independent, since its inception, there have been no audited reports of the KR2 project.