The Perceived Corruption At The Tema Ports And Harbours.

When the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffour, visited the Tema Ports and Harbours to familiarize himself with the revenue collection modules of CEPS he took the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) to task and challenged its leadership and workers to rid the service of its perceived corruption.

He expressed regret at the frequent negative reports of corruption and malfeasance within the service and told the Commissioner of CEPS and the entire staff to be proactive and boldly come up with interventions to raise the sunken image of the service and win back public trust and confidence.

Dr. Kwabena Daffour noted that the Tema collection of the service accounted for 55 per cent of the country’s total domestic revenue mobilization but the service failed to achieve the set target, which he said dwindled massively last year to about 40 per cent, a situation he described as spelling doom for the country's growth.

The Commissioner of CEPS, Mr. Richard Kumah Lanyon, tried to cover the CEPS by telling reporters later that the inability of the service to meet its revenue collection targets was largely due to issues such as the downward revision of petroleum taxes, exemptions and the global recession that had affected the volume and value of imports into the country. BUT pathetically his excuse was flimsy, because importers are failing and refraining from their business largely not because of petroleum taxes as the Commissioner of CEPS said but largely due to corruption and heavy inflated (general) duty charges by the NDC government as well as the CEPS, themselves through bribery and corruption. The Finance Minister however expressed regret that allegations of corruption, malfeasance and massive fraud in the service continued to make headlines, saying, why can't the CEPS go out and embark on a massive image cleansing exercise that will go into restoring the service’s trust among the public, that will lead to motivating and enhancing our economic growth?"

Ghanaian citizens outside the Country are very much worried about the high Duty charges and the corruptions which gradually climbing to the highest peak at the Tema Ports and Harbours.

What the Finance Minister, K Daffour forgot in his service accounts calculation which is also a big deficit in the country’s financial account is, the Castle selling seized cars for 50 Pesewas.

Source: FRANCIS TAWIAH (Duisburg – Germany)