Govt is ready to investigate cases of dismissals — Duffuor

Govt is ready investigate dismissals-Duffuor
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah

THE Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Dufuor, yesterday indicated his readiness to investigate allegations of dismissals of some members of the mass cocoa spraying gangs in certain beneficiary districts in the country.
The minister gave the promise when he appeared before the House to answer a question posed by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Asunafo North, Mr Robert Sarfo-Mensah, on the status of the existing spraying gangs involved in the cocoa spraying exercise.
In his follow-up questions, the MP alleged that about 3,000 people taking part in the exercise had been dismissed.
His allegation was collaborated by the MP for Dormaa West, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, who also alleged that about 800 members of the spraying gangs in his constituency had been dismissed
Although the Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyie-Mensah-Bonsu, and his deputy, Mr Ambrose Dery, called for an investigation to be conducted by the House since the matter involved the livelihood of the victims, the First Deputy Speaker, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, ruled that it was enough for the Minister of Finance to go into the matter.
Answering the questions, Dr Dufuor indicated that the Disease and Pest Control Programme, otherwise known as ‘mass spraying’, ran two programmes to control both blackpod and capsid diseases.
The blackpod programme involved spraying with recommended fungicide to control severe form of blackpod disease while the capsid programme involved spraying to control capsids on cocoa.
As of the end of 2008, the programme had 5,893 spraying gangs comprising 2,771 directly involved in the blackpod control while 3,122 were engaged in the capsid control.
Dr Dufuor told the House that an additional 100 spraying gangs had been created this year, bringing the total gangs to 5,993, explaining that the status of the spraying gangs remained unchanged.
He said that the mass spraying against the blackpod started since May 18, this year with the existing gangs together with the newly-created one while the Capsid programme was scheduled to start on August 3, 2009.
He emphasised that at the beginning of every season, the District Task Force was charged with the oversight responsibility of the spraying programmes in each district to review the performances of each gang for the previous year.
Dr Dufuor explained that appropriate disciplinary actions were taken against any misconduct such as theft of chemicals, misuse of spraying machines, collection of money from farmers for work done, absenteeism and vacation of post.
He said in some cases the entire gang or some of it against whom adverse reports were made were replaced, adding that these reviews and changes were practiced in the previous administration on a regular basis.
The finance minister stated that currently 72 districts were benefiting from the exercise, and gave the assurance to the House that the Ghana Cocoa Board would continue to assist hardworking cocoa farmers so that the target of achieving 1,000 tonnes in the medium term was realised.