Witness explains congestion at Tema Port

Accra, Aug. 16, GNA- Mr. Bashiru Mohammed, a scrap dealer, in a cross-examination at the Justice Glenn Wood Committee enquiry on Thursday condemned the use of Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) values in determining the cost of goods to be auctioned at the Tema Port. He said the use of the CIF values rather than the reserved price by some officials of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) tended to raise the price for auctioned goods and made it difficult for bid winners to collect their goods from the port.

The reserved price, kept confidential by the supervisor of the auction, is the value at which the owner of a property wants it to be sold.

Mr Mohammed said the use of the CIF by some custom officials to assess the value of goods had contributed to congestion at the port, adding that such practice was part of the tricks to discourage prospective bidders.

The cross-examination, led by Mr. Yao Yegbe, counsel for Madam Millicent Akpo-Teye, a custom officer, whom Mr Mohammed had mentioned in his evidence-in-chief as supervisor of auction at the Tema Port. Mr Mohammed in his evidence had said the auction team which Madam Akpo-Teye led had often not made bidders to physically inspect goods to be auctioned and after announcement of the highest bidder had had transferred the bid to another person or secretly reduced the price to be paid for the bids for their favourite bidders. He had cited for example that payment for some frozen chicken, auctioned by Peace Mart for 450 million cedis was later reduced to 120 million cedis.

In another instance, some frozen chicken which was originally sold at 225 million cedis to one Diana was later transferred to either P C Mensah or Jones Mensah at 120 million cedis. Again a 40-footer container of slippers auctioned at 420 million cedis by one Doku of Premier Marts, won by one Nash, was reduced to 20 million cedis.

Mr Mohammed did not agree to a suggestion from Mr Yegbey that he was testifying against Madam Akpo Teye out of grudge.