The Dispatch

CEPS yields to pressure

The Dispatch says the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), in an attempt to impose its authority over the entire shipping community, crumbled under pressure from the international shipping giant when it finally granted full operations to Saga (Gh) Limited, a Tema-based shipping agency, whose activities had been restricted to limited operation.

In a centre spread story, the Dispatch says the agency?s director for Africa, Mr Marc Gerard, who flew to Ghana from Europe, was alleged to have threatened to order the closure of Saga if it remained closed up to last weekend.

According to the paper, the threat has prompted CEPS to grant the company a full operational status to assuage the anger of the authorities who were getting impatient with what has been described as ?blunders? by CEPS.

The paper says a letter dated June 15, 1999, and signed by the acting Assistant Commissioner of CEPS in charge of Tema, Mr Robert Kwame, asked for a relaxation of the limited operations status slapped on Saga.

The Assistant Commissioner is reported as saying that his action followed a meeting with the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and representatives of Saga.

About two weeks ago, Saga was connected to an importation into Ghana of a container full of rice in which parcels of whitish substance suspected to be cocaine were concealed. The company was subsequently sanctioned by the CEPS.