Government has been asked to, as a matter of urgency, strengthen its security and intelligence at the country’s ports as brisk business and congestion are creating fertile grounds for corrupt government officials.

The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Ghana, which made the call during its 2011 Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Accra recently, said the situation, if not addressed, could stifle the country’s economic growth as corrupt government officials are using the ports to connive with nation wreckers in dubious deals to dupe the nation of much-needed revenue.

The seaports continue to carry about 90 per cent of the country’s seaborne trade, which has increased recently by 15 per cent and the Tema Port, in particular, is busting with brisk business.

“Ghana’s new oil economy brings along with it quite some investments which render the port very small to contain incoming business,” the President of CILT, Cletus Kuzagbe, stated in the 2011 annual report of the institute, noting that the sudden increase did not create only cargo congestion due to space limitations but huge daily vehicular traffic in the port environment.

Mr Kuzagbe therefore called on the government to move in quickly to translate its plans for port development into action, stressing that ports are the gateways and indicators of a country’s economy.

Another area of concern that the 2011 annual report of CILT touched on has to do with the ailing rail transport sector.

The sector, which contributes immensely to the socio-economic development of Ghana through the movement of passengers and freight to enhance economic activities, is now a pale shadow of itself.

“Rail transport, which was introduced into the country over a century ago, has declined not as a result of absence of market but because of lack of resources to deliver to the expectations of its clientele,” the report explained.

According to the institute, rail transport currently hauls less than two per cent of freight and passenger traffic.

Prominent among the products hauled were bauxite, manganese, cocoa, timber, cement and shea butter, which until recently were captive traffic to Ghana Railways.

The yearly traffic carried has declined steadily over the years, after reaching its peak of 2.3 million tons of freight and eight million passengers in the year 1965, the institute added, disclosing that Ghana Railways is now struggling to haul just half a million tons of freight, which is basically manganese ore, with the decorated infrastructure.

CILT welcomes plans by the government to rehabilitate the Western Corridor of the railway line and said it needed to be given prompt attention to forestall further deterioration of the last leg of the rail network in the country, and also ameliorate the haulage of the heavy bauxite and manganese by road to Takoradi Harbour.

The institute said the introduction of the commuter train services on the Accra-Tema and Accra-Nsawam corridors in line with the mass transit system has to a great extent helped to ease congestion in those corridors.

“It is expected that such services would be replicated in other metropolis of the country to facilitate the movement of commuters,” it noted.