The enraged staff of COCOBOD have sent a word of caution to the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto to stay off their Tiers 2 and 3 pension schemes.

At a staff durbar last Monday, the staff through management demanded that the Minister washes his hands off the management of the pension schemes in view of the fact that his alleged interference has led to the changing of service providers.

They threatened to demonstrate against what they described as manipulation if the Minister fails to adhere to their demands.

It is gathered that COCOBOD’s Tier 3 Provident Fund is being forced by some appointees of the president to change service providers to politically preferred ones and also remove the Independent Trustee from the fund’s board of Trustees.

The move has however been resisted by the staff who indicate that this was not the case when they were directly under the Ministry of Finance some years ago and insist the status quo must be maintained.

Meanwhile, IMANI, a policy think-tank reveals that some government ministers are using their public positions to further their personal and financial interests to the detriment of public sector workers.

“We also believe that this is happening at the blind side of the Presidency. At this point, it is important for the Presidency to resist vehemently this attempted neo-corruption. Tiers 2 & 3 pension schemes belong wholly to workers. The President’s attention is being called to these activities so the ministers involved will desist from these acts. It will be good if the Presidency turns its attention to COCOBOD first. IMANI fought so hard for the country to have a decent pension industry. We need not let it all fall apart again”, it said in a statement.