CEPS not to tolerate corrupt practices by staff

Bunso (E/R), Nov 29, GNA - The Commissioner of Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), Brigadier Richard Baiden has warned the staff of the Service that management would not tolerate any form of corruption and that perpetrators would be prosecuted when caught.

He said the management was aware that there were still pockets of corruption along the country's frontiers and ports being orchestrated by some unscrupulous officers of CEPS.

Brig. Baiden said with current efforts to improve their conditions of service, officers must eschew acts that would tarnish the image of CEPS.

He was addressing the opening of the 13th Annual Delegates Conference of the Senior Staff Association of the CEPS (SSACEPS) at Bunso Cocoa College in the East Akyem district.

The conference has the theme: "A well-motivated supervisor is an efficient change agent."

Brig. Baiden said a recent survey by the Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNet Ltd) revealed that officers continued to exhibit gross incompetence and professional misconduct in the discharge of their duties at the Tema Port involving unpunctuality and malingering leading to delay in the clearance of goods.

He described the observation as "unacceptable" and hinted that management would deal drastically with any officer who would not living up to expectation.

Brig Baiden said with the current measures to improve conditions in the Service the SSACEPS should complement the efforts of management to ensure higher productivity and harmony at work instead of resorting to "avoidable and senseless confrontations."

He cited institutional changes such as the GCNet, the Ghana Customs Management System(GCMS)and the Certification Projects and said a consultant would soon be engaged to carry out a staff rationalization exercise in order to determine the impact of the projects on staff requirements.

The Commissioner asked users of the Service's products to accept changes resulting from technological innovations.

Brig. Baiden commended the aggressive tax education programme recently embarked upon by the Association under the auspices of the Federation of Associations and Unions of Revenue Agencies (FAUNRA) and described the impact and success as resounding revenue mobilization effort.

A member of the Council of State, Nana Ogyeabour Akompi Finam 11, advised FAUNRA to consider their demand for higher remuneration within the context of the overall national efforts to rationalise incomes with productivity in the public service.

He said the government was desirous to fashion out a more acceptable income structure for workers to correct the distortions and disparities and called on all workers to help expose those involved in the perpetration of the "ghost names" canker.

Nana Finam, who is also the Omanhene of the Kadjebi Traditional Area, reminded them that the public perception of the Service was on the downward trend.

He, therefore, asked the association to make efforts to remove the negative perception by the public about revenue and security agencies.

Nana Finam said the Council of State was prepared to consider any proposals by the Board of the Service to make CEPS a more credible revenue collection agency.

The National Chairman of the SSACEPS, Mr Christian Lawer, said as a result of an outreach programme on tax education initiated by the SSACEPS to change the attitude of the staff towards revenue collection the monthly revenue at Tema Port moved from 1.6 billion cedis to 200 billion cedis in September.

He spoke about SSACEPS rejection of the new conditions of service approved in May and called for the withdrawal of the document "to give meaning to our many years of meritorious service."

Mr Lawer said one of the weaknesses of the Service was the lack of a "Clear Succession Plan', adding "it is difficult to tell who is the undisputable second-in-command in CEPS today."

He expressed concern about outside interference in the Service and wondered why management "surrenders offending officers with alacrity to outside agencies for punishment and not allowing CEPS disciplinary procedures to work."

Mr Lawer called on management of CEPS to immediately set up forensic audit into the Welfare Accounts of the staff and to publish the outcome.

He said the association had purchased plots of land at Gomoa Nyanyanor in the Central Region with part of its Provident Fund adding that a staff guesthouse was to be built on one of the plots for commercial use.