Allow govt to complete investigations ...into allocation of timber rights

Page 38
04-02-10

THE Concerned Timber Operators Association has called on timber firms under investigations over the acquisition of timber rights to harvest timber four years ago to allow the Government more time to conclude its work instead of politicising the matter.
It said its own investigations had shown that some firms did not get the permit to acquire forest reserves through competitive bidding as demanded by law.
The Spokesperson of the Association, Mr Bright Nkeyasen, who made the call in Accra, said the process of awarding plantation timber rights from the 1980s to 2003 was by application to the Forestry Department.
"In 2003, there was an Act of Parliament per Legislative Instrument (LI 1721) to regulate the award of plantation timber rights. Under this law, every award of timber rights was supposed to pass through competitive bidding.
He said with the law, undue favours and other corrupt practices were eliminated, alleging that some former sector Ministers of State as well as a former Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission deliberately disregarded the law".
Mr Nkeyasen, therefore, called on the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to halt and withdraw all the illegal permits issued out.
"By Forestry Commission rules, contractors were not to harvest trees below the diameter of 20 centimetres at breath height.
These companies, backed by people in higher authority, fragrantly disregarded those rules and destroyed the plantations by harvesting almost every tree that came their way," he said.
He said as soon as the current minister took office, he should have withdrawn all those illegal permits.
Mr Nkeyasen charged all operators in the industry to hold their peace and allow the minister and the committee set up to conclude the investigations into the issuance of permits to complete their work.
He urged all plantation timber members to support Mr Owusu Amankwah of Jowak company so that his stay on the Board of the Forestry Commission would help address the numerous problems facing the sector.
He also called on the Government to involve the plantation timber operators in the national afforestation project launched recently by the President, Prof J.E.A. Mills.