The Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission has dismissed a report citing the Commission for bribery and corruption.
Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie said the allegations against him and officials of the Commission by the Environmental Investigative Agency (EIA) are false and not a true reflection of what transpires at there.
He said the former head of the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, Nana Adu Nsiah, who was cited in the report is a truthful man who has served the Commission diligently for many years.
Speaking to Evans Mensah on PM Express on Wednesday, Mr. Owusu Afriyie insisted that the EIA reporters failed to speak to Mr. Nsiah who they cited in the report.
That for him is a flaw in the report because if the investigators had met Nsiah, “they would have stated it that when they gave him some gifts, he indeed accepted it.”
The CEO said internal investigations into the EIA report has exonerated Mr. Nsiah. He added that the Commission is ready to face any ongoing investigations by the executive and other state bodies.
The EIA report claims undercover investigators discovered that powerful Chinese and Ghanaian traffickers are still harvesting and shipping rosewood out of the country through “the help of ruling party members and complicity at all levels of government.”
It said they have established an institutionalised scheme, fueled by bribes, to mask the illegal harvest, transport, export.
The 16-page report titled: “Ban-Boozled: How corruption and collusion fuel illegal rosewood trade in Ghana” cited Nana Adu Nsiah as one of the people who received percentages of the sale to allow for the illegal export of rosewood.
Builsa South Member of Parliament Dr. Clement Apaak has since petitioned the Office of Special Prosecutor demanding the prosecution of members of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Forestry Commission officials cited in the EIA report.
He also attached a video from the organisation and a Joy News documentary, Killing Our Roses, as additional evidence.
However, the Forestry Commission CEO insists nothing would come out of the probes since the Commission is clean.