Ex-Customs boss found guilty!

At long last, The Crusading Guide has been vindicated over a series of publications that sought to expose the malfeasance perpetrated by the Commissioner of Customs, Exercise and Preventive Service (CEPS), Isaac Opoku Ntiamoah, who has just been dismissed from office.

Following the reports, some of which were headlined, "Corruption galore AT CEPS, Commissioner caught pants down" (22-28 October 2002) and "The ?5.7bn Sugar Scandal: Don't publish it or the President would have a second thought about me- CEPS boss" (24 -30 October 2002), the Hon Minister of Finance, Yaw Osafo-Marfo, in a letter dated 1 November 2002, directed that an investigative committee be appointed to look into the allegations against the CEPS boss.

The Committee comprised Paul Osei-Kwabena (Board Member, RAGB), chairman, Sammy T. Tsahey (Board Member, RAGB), member, and D.T Acquaye (DC, Special Duties, IRS), as member/secretary.

After five sittings and interviewing a total of eight persons, the committee was fully of convinced that Opoku Nyiamoah did not conduct himself well regarding the release of 100,000 bags x 50kg of granulated sugar imported into the country by Tondi Ghana Limited, owned by Alhaji Tondi Abdoulaye, who had defaulted in paying customs duty on the commodity.

Tondi's total tax liability was estimated by CEPS officials on the line of duty as ?5.7bn (including pecuniary penalty) but the CEPS Commissioner connived with Alhaji Tondi to deprive the state of that amount.

Consequently, he was dismissed last week and the government appointed Brigadier Richardson E. Baiden of the Ghana Armed forces to replace him (Ntiamoah).

When the said quantity of sugar were deposited at the CEPS bonded warehouse No A/130, it was later discovered by the Service that 69,429 bags has been removed by Tondi Abdoulaye, with the connivance of one Daniel Appiah.

According to the report, a committee set up by CEPS to probe the company (Tondi) observed that Appiah regularly submitted monthly stock level at the Warehouse to the Accra collection point and that his report tallied with records at the collection point, although 'no stock was taken of the items in the Bonded Warehouse between 1 – 30 January 2002. He was said to have been interdicted and subsequently dismissed through a letter dated October 2002.

At a point in time, an Assistant Commissioner in Accra reportedly advised the ex-Commissioner that “Tondi Abdoulaye was an unreliable importer and so must not be trusted". In spite of that admonition, he authorised the release of detained goods to ensure that the proceeds of the sale would be paid to CEPS.

Opoku Ntiamoah, the report had indicated, did not take the recommendations of two of his Assistant Commissioners- Messrs Kofi Dankwah and J.K Oklu- on two separate occasions that pecuniary of 300 per cent should be imposed on the importers.

"The use of the Commissioner's a power of discretion to impose a pecuniary penalty of only 100 per cent in circumstances where 300 per cent penalty would have been clearly justified and proper, appears a bit questionable and unfortunate.

At least CEPS was holding 30,000 bags x 50kg of granulated sugar which could have been sold to defray the duties and penalties," stated the report.

The Committee observed that is was the decision of the just dismissed Commissioner to allow the importer to collect 10,000 bags of the sugar, “which afforded him an opportunity to commit further fraud by removing additional quantity of 9,918 bags from the Bonded Warehouse".

As indicated by the report, Alhaji Tondi appeared to have treated CEPS officials with contempt and disdain as manifested in a letter he wrote on 2 July 2002 requesting that a planned auction of his goods be postponed pending the return of Opoku Ntiamoah, who had then travelled outside the country. An Assistant Commissioner had advised the ex-Commissioner to inform Tondi Ghana that it (company) should not continue to dictate its own terms with regards to its tax payments.

"The Committee was of the opinion that the company in fact, did not intend to pay any duty in respect of all the goods held in the Bonded Warehouse", it underscored, adding, "This feeling is borne out of the fact that after the company had illegally removed 70 per cent of its imports without paying the requisite duties, it was able to apply for additional 10,000 bags which it got under the pretext of selling the goods and paying the proceeds to CEPS. It sold out all its goods without fulfilling its promise".

In a cross-examination earlier, according to the report, the former Commissioner had admitted to the committee that a Crusading Guide reporter, Anas Aremeyaw Anas had hinted him previously that the stock at the Bonded Warehouse, which was supposed to be 20,000 bags of granulated sugar, were indeed less than that.

"The Committee inquired from the Commissioner whether after the disclosure by the newspaper reporter he took any steps to verify the veracity of the information. The Commissioner replied in the negative. He informed the Committee that he did not believe what the reporter had told him", stated the report.

A letter dated 28 October 2002, from Law Group & Co, Solicitors of Tondi Ghana Ltd. was claiming that Tondi was not indebted to CEPS and was calling on the Service to render an account for the company's 10,000 bags of sugar estimated to yield ?1.5bn sold out by a private agreement by CEPS without its knowledge.

The Committee recommended among other things, that "CEPS should pursue all legal avenue open to it to quickly retrieve the outstanding tax liability due from Tondi Ghana Ltd", that "CEPS should consider withdrawing permanently all warehousing facilities from the company" and that "CEPS should charge interest at Bank of Ghana's discount rate on all outstanding tax liabilities from the date each tax evasion was discovered".