The Ghana Standards Board (GSB) has said it is poised to ensure that quality weighing scales are being used by cocoa marketing clerks across the country to prevent the cheating of unsuspecting cocoa farmers. This follows complaints from farmers that some marketing clerks have been manipulating the weighing scales in cocoa growing areas especially in the rural areas to frustrate them. The Ghana Standards Board has noted that the importance of Ghana’s cocoa cannot be overlooked and it will therefore do everything within its mandate to encourage farmers to maintain the quality of Ghana’s cocoa beans on the international market. Speaking in an interview with Adom Business Report on Tuesday, the Head of the Public Relations Unit at the GSB, Amponsah Bediako said the Board has monitoring teams who have been conducting constant checks to verify the suitability of weighing scales being used to ensure that they meet the required standards. He explained that those machines that fail to meet the set targets are banned and afterwards identified with red stickers to signify that they cannot be used whilst the correct ones are identified with green stickers. Apart from that he said the Board has been organizing intensive training for the farmers and urged them to remain vigilant in dealing with some of the marketing clerks to ensure the right thing is done. Mr. Bediako downplayed rumors that the Board has taken a softer stand in its duties without doing proper supervision to check illegal practices by clerks. He warned that anyone who will be found culpable of using manipulated scales will be prosecuted, whilst appealing to the farmers to report such negative practices to the offices of the Ghana Standards Board. Story: Afia Akyere/Adom News/Ghana