Investigations have revealed that corruption at the various ports in the country is costing Ghana some GHS1.2 billion per year, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has said.

According to him, government is working hard to deal with this criminal act in order to save the state some money.

Presenting the 2017 mid-year budget review on the floor of parliament on Monday July 31, Mr Ofori-Atta said: “Ongoing investigations at the ports have unearthed significant under-declaration amounting to short payment of some GHS1.2billion, inclusive of penalty.

“We are determined to tackle that criminal culture and expect clients and examination officers to carry out their activities with diligence and honesty or face the consequences.”

Touching on other sectors of the economy, Mr Ofori-Atta observed that provisional data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) released in 2017 showed that the “real GDP growth for 2016 was 3.5 per cent against the provisional estimate of 3.6 per cent reported in the 2017 budget and lower than the 3.8 per cent recorded for 2015 – the lowest in over 15 years”.

The services sector had a growth of 5.7 per cent followed by agriculture, 3.0 per cent, and Industry 1.4 per cent adding, that “the economy we inherited was severely impaired”.

Mr Ofori-Atta noted that the “fiscal deficit was worse than previously estimated at 9.3 per cent of GDP compared to a provisional figure of 8.7 per cent of GDP on cash basis at the time of presenting the 2017 budget.”