PAC unhappy with failure to recover loans given to farmers

The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, PAC, has expressed its displeasure with officials of the Ministry of Agriculture for failing to ensure farmers pay back loans given them under various programmes.

At its sitting in Accra, the PAC told officials of the ministry in no uncertain terms that they had failed the state.

The Committee was considering the Auditor General’s report for Ministries, Departments and Agencies for 2012.

Some of the issues they probed the officials on were, their failure to recover loans, payment of unearned salary, and unpaid balance on tractors and other equipment credited the farmers.

The Regional Agricultural Office in Kumasi for instance, failed to recover loans up to one point eight million Ghana cedis under the maize support project.

There was also failure to recover loans for agro-processing equipment worth 19 thousand  Ghana cedis.

From the Auditor General, a review of the Block Farm Project disclosed that between January and December 2011, a total of 12 thousand Ghana cedis was disbursed to 45 farmers as loans in the form of inputs. 

An amount of eight thousand Ghana cedis had been recovered leaving an outstanding balance of four thousand Ghana cedis yet to be recovered. 

These financial breaches were found in several districts nationwide. 

The PAC has therefore tasked the heads of the Department of Agriculture in the districts to seek legal redress in the recovery of the debts as directed by the Auditor General's report.   

GBC