The chairman of the opposition New Patriotic Party in the Aowin constituency has alleged gross financial misconduct and acts bordering on corruption against the District Chief Executive, Oscar Larbie. Mr Samuel Ebba Boadi made the allegations when he addressed a press conference in the distict. According to him, grave has been the level of corruption in the district that “NDC foot soldiers have amassed so much wealth within the shortest time. Currently, most leading foot soldiers either have taxi cabs or a brand new motor bikes. Some are even busily putting up buildings. This is an open secret.” Mr Boadi cited a GHc150,000 contract awarded for the 1st phase of the Atua Desilting and Concrete Works, which the party felt was inflated. The NPP chairman claimed that the contract was awarded to M/S JPP Construction Ltd on 25th January 2010, however, the contract only involved desilting works and no concrete work was done. He also made mention of another contract awarded for renovation works at the maternity block of the Enchi Government Hospital which was pegged at GHc70,000 by the DCE. “That, to us, is the highest level of financial dishonesty shown by any honourable member in the history of our district. How on earth could such a renovation work cost that much when there were 20 trips of sand and 5,000 pieces of cement blocks already on site?”, Mr Boadi asked. He also lamented the state of the mass cocoa spraying exercise initiated by the Kufuor administration. According to him, there is an alarming spate of theft and diversion of chemicals intended for this exercise by NDC functionaries in the district. “What makes this case even more pathetic is that anytime someone is apprehended for a crime relating to the sale or diversion of the mass spraying chemicals, it’s either Hon. Oscar Larbi (DCE) or Hon Mathias Ntow (MP) who rushes in to secure their bail,” he said The NPP Chairman continued, “We can cite example of cases involving Nzema, Yaw Koliko etc. who were arrested at different times for crimes relating to the sale and or diversion of Mass Spraying Chemicals. Our collective issue is that, the fact that Hon. Mathias Ntow personally went round to form these new Spraying gangs does not immune them from prosecution. Farmers are seriously complaining about the continuous decline in the quantity and quality of service rendered to them.” As a result of these nefarious activities which are undermining the mass cocoa spraying exercise, most cocoa farms in the district, over the past year, have been at the mercy of “Akati” and “Anonom” even after farmers had invested huge sums of monies into fertilizer and weedicides. According to him, as a result of the bad management of the mass cocoa sprayin exercise by the NDC and its apparatchiks in the district, no single cocoa spraying gang in the district can boast of receiving even a single carton of Confidor this year.