A total of 14,257 out of 300,000 bags of rice imported from India into the country early this year have either been destroyed or stolen from the Tema Harbour.
This came to light when the Chief Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), Ambassador John Aggrey, led newsmen to inspect the imported rice, valued at $10.26 million, at a warehouse in Tema yesterday.
Mr. E. K. Agyepong, a customs officer, who briefed the chief director, said 143 bags were stolen when the cargo was being offloaded from the Tema Port to the warehouse, while 12,713 bags were destroyed and would have to be re-bagged. He said 594 bags were caked and had to be destroyed in the presence of officials of the Food and Drugs Board.He explained, therefore, that the number of sound bags left at the warehouses was 297,003 Giving a background to the importation, Mr. Aggrey explained that last year when food prices where escalating, the government appealed to the Indian government to supply the country with rice to stockpile as a food security measure.
He said when the Indian government shipped the rice into the country, it was consigned to the MFA but the ministry transferred the consignment and the letters of credit to the National Investment Bank (NIB) to open them. He explained that when the rice arrived in the country this year there had been a change of government and as a result a controversy arose over the importation by the ministry, which delayed the distribution of the rice. Mr. Aggrey said Cabinet had now decided that the ministry should inspect the rice, after which it would be sold by the NIB to the public. The 300,000 bags, which were shipped into the country by the State Trading Corporation of India in February this year, aroused the suspicion of the government and the public, as the MFA is not the government institution that imports food commodities.
That led to the seizure of the passport of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Akwasi Osei-Adjei, by the state for investigations to be carried out. Mr. Aggrey told newsmen later that as part of efforts at ascertaining whether the rice had all arrived or not, Cabinet directed that the MFA should inspect the warehouse where the rice had been kept in the presence of newsmen. He explained that now that the inspection of the consignment had been completed, a report would be made to Cabinet, after which it would issue a release for the sale of the rice to the public. Mr. Aggrey said considering the state of the rice at the warehouse, an expeditious action had to be taken to dispose of it to avoid the situation where most of it would be declared unwholesome for lying idle for a long time at the warehouses.
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