Bidders clear goods with false documents

Accra, Dec. 17, GNA - The government auction Task Force overseeing the sale of all overstayed containers at Tema Port on Monday said it had uncovered deals in which some professional bidders were using fake bank payment receipts to clear containers from the port.

Besides, some others were not paying anything at all on their winning bids and in the process denied government of needed revenue for development, Mr Harry Owusu, Executive Secretary of the Revenue Agency Governing Board told journalists at press briefing on the auction sales. Mr Owusu said checks at the Ghana Commercial Bank, where such monies were to be paid, confirmed that the bidders had actually failed to make the requisite payments even though the containers had been successfully cleared from the port.

So far five persons, all members of the so-called Professional Bidders, have been arrested in connection with the acts. The suspects are P.C. Mensah, Yaw Marfo, Kofi Owusu, Felix Boadi and A.A. Kodie.

He said although not yet established, it was strongly believed that these suspected miscreants might be enjoying some 'official' collaboration to be able to put their plans into effect.

"The Task Force is in the process of conducting a comprehensive investigation to ascertain how far the current system of clearing goods from the port has been abused," Mr Owusu said.

He said those developments impacted negatively on government's revenue mobilization drive and frustrated attempts by Customs, Excise and Preventive Service Management to meet its annual target. The Task Force was set up in September this year to see to the sale of over-stayed containers at the Port to help decongest it and unlock government revenue.