The Ashanti Regional NPP Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, aka Chairman Wontumi, has refuted claims that he received a GH\u00a250 million payment from the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) during the final days of the Akufo-Addo administration.<\/p>\n
The allegations, which have circulated widely in recent media reports, suggest that Wontumi\u2019s company, Hallmark Engineering, was paid the sum despite a directive from the then-incoming Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, to halt contract payments during the transition period.<\/p>\n
Describing the claims as \u201ccompletely false and misleading,\u201d Wontumi strongly denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is absolutely untrue that I collected money from COCOBOD,\u201d he told journalists in Accra on Monday, 26 May, shortly after being granted bail in a separate case concerning alleged illegal mining activities.<\/p>\n
Wontumi explained that government contractors are not given funds in advance and are required to pre-finance their projects before being reimbursed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are constructing a road, the government doesn\u2019t give you the money upfront\u2014you use your own funds,\u201d he stated, highlighting the standard procedure for infrastructure contracts.<\/p>\n
He added that after completing the work, contractors are reimbursed based on verified assessments by relevant government agencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe contractor is reimbursed only after the road is completed,\u201d he said. \u201cAt that point, engineers from the Ghana Highways Authority and COCOBOD assess the project and value it based on the agreed rates.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Wontumi, the contract required COCOBOD to issue payment within 28 days of completion.<\/p>\n
However, he alleged that the institution delayed the payment for nearly three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo COCOBOD cannot claim they do not owe me,\u201d he concluded, insisting that any funds eventually received were legitimate and overdue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Ashanti Regional NPP Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, aka Chairman Wontumi, has refuted claims that he received a GH\u00a250 million payment from the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) during the final days of the Akufo-Addo administration. The allegations, which have circulated widely in recent media reports, suggest that Wontumi\u2019s company, Hallmark Engineering, was paid the sum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123457,"featured_media":11145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[3570,2509,1508,232],"class_list":["post-11144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","tag-bernard-antwi-boasiako","tag-chairman-wontumi","tag-cocobod","tag-npp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11146,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11144\/revisions\/11146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}