COCOBOD: Wontumi dismisses reports of receiving GH₵50m

The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako, known as Chairman Wontumi, has dismissed reports of receiving GH₵50 million from the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) during the final days of the Akufo-Addo administration.

Speaking to journalists in Accra on Monday, May 26, 2025, shortly after being granted bail in a separate case involving alleged illegal mining—Wontumi dismissed the reports as false and misleading.

“It is absolutely untrue that I collected money from COCOBOD,” he stated.

Wontumi explained that his company, like all government contractors, pre-financed its projects and only became eligible for payment after successful completion and verification.

“If you’re constructing a road, the government doesn’t give you money upfront—you use your own funds,” he said. “Once the project is completed, engineers from the Ghana Highways Authority and COCOBOD assess and value the work based on agreed contractual rates.”

He further disclosed that the contract required payment to be made within 28 days of project completion. However, he alleged that COCOBOD delayed payment for nearly three years.

“So COCOBOD cannot claim they do not owe me,” Wontumi insisted, stressing that any eventual payments made were legitimate, overdue, and processed through standard government procedures.

The allegations, which surfaced in recent media reports, suggest that Wontumi’s company, Hallmark Engineering, was paid a substantial amount by COCOBOD, despite an alleged directive from the then-incoming Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, to suspend all contract payments during the transitional period.