MANAGEMENT of the Ghana Cocoa Board ( COCOBOD) has explained that contract staff hired by the Board as enumerators were issued six-month contracts, not permanent employment, and “this was made known to them at the time of their recruitment.”
COCOBOD maintained that its letters to all enumerators was to serve as the official two-week notice of the end of contracts, “which is a standard practice and must not be
misconstrued.”
These were captured in a press release issued by COCOBOD in reaction to a story carried in the Anchor newspaper on Monday, May 22 2023 which story according to the release “sought to link an official notice from COCOBOD to enumerators about their contract to the country’s IMF deal and funding challenges.”
The Cocoa management entity said it found the claim made by The Anchor newspaper that “information concerning this matter is sketchy”, rather unfortunate, particularly, when the newspaper made no attempt whatsoever to reach COCOBOD for any information or clarification.
According to COCOBOD , the specific role of the enumerators was the collection of data and registration onto the Cocoa Management System (CMS).
“In the course of the exercise, some enumerators had their contracts extended and some were made to help with the first phase of the onboarding of farmers onto the Cocoa Farmers Pension Scheme (CFPS). The enumeration and the registration of cocoa farmers for the CMS and the onboarding onto the first phase of the CFPS were successfully completed on May 15, 2023,” the release said.
It stressed that prior to the notice of the end of contract, COCOBOD had informed and explained to the contract staff concerned, to make them sufficiently aware of the matter.
“We advise the public to disregard the content of the article which is not only speculative but also misleading and avoidable,” the statement ended.
