Billion Lost At Tema Port

...As Syndicates &CEPS Officials Dupe State
If prompt measures are not put in place by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to detail leading security agents to arrest a notorious syndicate at Tema Habour, roguish elements operating at the Port will continue to line their pockets with state resources that should ideally go into the national kitty. Following the arrest and subsequent release of a member of the syndicate, Fred Kofi Sarpong, an employee of Top Speed Agency at Tema, in connection with tax evasion the group has intensified its operations at the habour like never before.

THE SUN has gathered that Kofi Sarpong who was released on Police Enquiry Bail only last week, seems not to have learned anything useful from his arrest. The paper’s surveillance at Tema Habour indicates that only last week Sarpong teamed-up with some Chinese operatives doing retailing around Okaishie-Accra, and succeeded in hoodwinking Port authorities with a token payment after which he managed to clear an unlimited quantity of imported goods from China for his clients.

Additionally THE SUN's investigations at the Habour discovered that most of the importers were partly to blame for the fraudulent activities of the syndicate.

It emerged that the cartel has managed to push a majority of agents who were doing business legitimately from the business. An insider told THE SUN that some of the corrupt importers preferred to deal with the members of the syndicate because of the low charges they pay to them.

The insider blamed some CEPS and National Security operatives at the habour for the crooked goings-on.

“Some of the security and Customs officers who were supposed to serve as check, are in bed with the syndicate and this has given them a field day to short-change the state,” a source told THE SUN.

“They gathered some of the traders and instead of paying the correct duty to genuine agents to clear their goods for them, rater preferred to hand it over to ‘goro’ agents who would then pay something small to the state and share the booty with their partners-in-crime,” another source informed.

THE SUN gathered that, another modus operandi of the syndicate over the years was to declare their imported goods (TRANSIT GOODS) on its way to Niger, Burkina Faso or Mali, whenever it arrived at the Tema Port even though it was meant for Ghanaian market.

Just about a week ago, the lad, Kofi Sarpong of TOP SEED AGENCY at Tema was arrested at his hideout in a hotel at Nungua in Accra.

Information available to THE SUN indicates that, before the arrest of Sarpong at his hideout last Monday September 14, one of his employees had been arrested together with a quantity of imported frozen goods by Customs officers on the way to the open market.

The paper gathered that over the years, a syndicate at Tema Habour with the help of some roguish CEPS and National Security agents at the harbour had helped the gang to outmaneuver Custom officials, and succeeded in backing off from paying tax, whenever their goods arrived from abroad.

As THE SUN hit the Tema port last Thursday on its normal routine operations, a lot of fraudulent things were discovered.