The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako, also known as Chairman Wontumi, has denied receiving a GH₵50 million payment from the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) under the Akufo-Addo administration.
According to recent media reports, COCOBOD paid a considerable sum to Wontumi’s company, Hallmark Engineering, despite a directive from the then-incoming Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, to freeze contract payments during the transition period. However, Wontumi has refuted the charges as utterly incorrect and deceptive.
“It is completely false that I received money from COCOBOD,” Wontumi told reporters in Accra on Monday, May 26, shortly after being granted bail in a separate case involving alleged unlawful mining.
He emphasised that contractors do not receive advance payments from government entities but must instead finance their own projects.
“If you are constructing a road, the government doesn’t give you the money upfront—you use your own funds,” he said.
According to Wontumi, his company completed the project with internal resources and, like all government contractors, was only eligible for reimbursement after the work was completed and properly appraised.
“The contractor is reimbursed only after the road is completed,” he told me. “At that point, engineers from the Ghana Highways Authority and COCOBOD assess the project and value it based on the agreed rates.”
He stated that the contract required payment within 28 days of job completion. However, he alleged that COCOBOD waited nearly three years to meet its financial obligations.
“So COCOBOD cannot claim they do not owe me,” he told me.
