Massive Loot Uncovered

…DICs milking the state through importers and clearing agents

It is now official. The government of Ghana has lost staggering hundreds of trillion cedis in revenue through the activities of Destination Inspection companies (DICs). Daily Postforensic analysis of data in Ghana Community Net Services (GCNET), a special software that houses import and export transactions at the ports, has revealed a mafia tactics that currently operates with the sole aim of duping the state.

The mafia includes the four DICs, clearing agents and importers. The DICs are Ghana Link now Ghana Customs Inspection Company, Gateway Services Ltd, (GSL), Inspection and Control Services (ICS) and BIVAC).

This paper’s investigations have uncovered that importers, whose goods have been assessed and issued with a Final Classification and Valuation Report (FCVR) by a DIC to go and pay do not do so. Realising that the assessed duty is too much for them, these importers run to another DIC where import documents are altered and the duty eventually pegged at ridiculously low level. Daily Posthas in its possession over six million transactions involving all the DICs.

In one of such transactions, Dygate Ghana Ltd which imported from Zadur was assessed by BIVAC to pay a duty of ¢524million (GH¢52,400.00) but the company sneaked to Ghana Customs Inspection Company (GCIC) where the grand collusion took place. This time, Dygate claimed it imported from Barcelona, making the duty level to be reduced to ¢71.3 million (GH¢7,125.00).

In this transaction alone, the government lost revenue of ¢453 million. Another importer, Mavis Tachie was assessed by GSL and asked to pay ¢260.2 million (GH¢26,020.31). The importer did not pay but rather ran to Ghana Link where the original invoice number was changed from 07/902 to SXT07/902, culminating in the payment of duty to a paltry ¢39.4 million (GH¢3,937.50).

Forensic analysis of this transaction has revealed that the port from which the export was done to Tema was changed from Halifax to CHIWAN. The government of Ghana again lost a whopping ¢220.8 million in revenue short fall. Agrosteel Distrubution Agency Ltd imported from New York with invoice number DAT/0718. The company’s goods were assessed by GSL and ordered to pay ¢449.6 million (GH¢44,959.99).

Forensic tracking of operations revealed that Agrosteel ran to Ghana Link where its duty was reduced to ¢19.4million (GH¢1,940.00). The state, was thus short-changed to lose revenue of ¢430.2 million. Our analysis also revealed that Agrosteel’s place of export changed from New York to Hamburg and the invoice also forged to read as NF0125/07. It has also emerged that in the over six million transactions, government of Ghana has had to pay the DICs double commission for the assessment and valuation carried on one importer due to the migration among the DICs.

So far, the DICs have no mechanism to determine whether one importer has run away from another DIC. Currently, the Ministry of Trade has awarded these DICs contracts where they are each allowed to carry valuation of goods form designated territories. It is therefore criminal for DICs to be doing destination inspection on goods which do not come from their assigned territories. Equally worrisome is the fact that these DICs have not developed any mechanism to check this migration from their other colleagues.

In our earlier reports, analysis of transactions by GSL from 2003 to 2009 revealed that ¢22.4 trillion was uncollected as revenue. ¢5.2 trillion was lost through BIVAC and ¢7.4 trillion through ICS. With regards to Ghana Link, we are in the process of computing the figures. In total, over ¢35 trillion was lost through GSL, BIVAC and ICS from 2003 to 2007 at the Tema and Takoradi ports. In our next edition, we report in-depth on revenue loss at the behest of DICs with crook importing companies and clearing agents on the flip side.Book your copies in advance.