Shady deals at Forestry Commission as staff receive bribes into private accounts

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MyNewsGh.com has uncovered some shady deals at the Forestry Commission as some staff have been caught pants down receiving bribes into their private accounts

Some lumber traders in the country who blew the cover of the cartel are not too happy with the kind of treatment being meted out to them by some officials of the Forestry Commission who are consistently demanding for bribes suffocating their businesses.

They also allege extortion of monies by Forestry Commission officials who in extreme cases threaten to seize their wood if they fail to pay the demanded bribes even though they have the requisite documents to cart wood to some specific areas for export.

“After paying all our duties as required by the government, they ordered our trucks to be seized until we parted with a whopping GH¢15,000 into a GCB bank account number 1361010015935 bearing the name Ebenezer Bekoe” one victim alleged.

She suspects that workers at the Forestry Commission have printed their own receipt books for dubious dealings and authorities must intervene before the matter gets out of hand

A copy of the pay in slip in possession of MyNewsGh.com indicates a payment amount of GH¢8000 into the Kisseman branch of the GCB bank dated April 17, 2019.

“Why are they duping us for doing legitimate business”, the angry business woman quizzed.

“If we have the means, we would have sued them in court” she threatened.

The business woman who spoke on grounds of strict anonymity expressed grave worry over dealings of the Forestry Commission staff on the highways indicating it is impacting negatively on their business.

“The high cost of doing business is already frustrating while the bribe and penalties been paid is making business unbearable. They gave us a date to pay the money into the said account or forfeit our wood so I had to borrow money to pay”.

She indicates that she’s not the only victim as others in the lumbering business are either compelled to pay GH¢2000 before allowed to go or some of their wood taken from the trucks for sale.

According to her, her truck of rosewood she bought from Atebubu in the Bono Region for export was seized at Nsawam despite all genuine documents shown to them.

All efforts to speak to officials of the Forestry Commission proved futile as none has been available for comment.

By: Mynewsgh.com