Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 19 May ?99

Five officers of the Customs Excise And Preventive Service (CEPS) have been sacked and 20 others interdicted for various malpractices since the beginning of the year.

Nii Okine Adjei, newly appointed commissioner of CEPS who disclosed this at Sunyani on Wednesday warned that the days of corruption in the service are over and those who compromise their positions for personal gains would be axed without mercy.

He was addressing a workers' durbar at Sunyani on Tuesday as part of his three-day tour of the Brong Ahafo region.

Nii Adjei said corruption in the service is so endemic that some custom officers are literary deemed to be on sale in the eyes of smugglers and their agents.

" The biggest honour that any citizen can receive is to be trusted with the noble task of collecting revenue for your country so if you cannot reciprocate this honour by being truthful, then you have no place in CEPS", he declared.

Nii Adjei who assumed office barely three months ago, announced that the service is fashioning out a scheme to reward personnel who distinguish themselves in the course of their duties.

He said management is taking steps to provide some of the logistical needs of the service to enable personnel achieve their revenue targets and urged them give off their best to justify their demands for better conditions of service.

The regional commander of CEPS, Mr James Kwasi Acheampong, said the region is not performing well in terms of revenue collection because of many difficulties including lack of logistics.

He was hopeful that the visit of the commissioner would help change the situation for the better.

The head of the public relations department of CEPS, Mrs. Anni Anipa, who accompanied the commissioner, said public image of the service is at the lowest ebb due to widespread belief that CEPS personnel are corrupt.

"Let us therefore discharge our duties with integrity from now and rid the service of its present bad image", she stressed.