News
Ghana loses GH₵100m port revenue – Minority
Ghana lost GH₵100 million at the ports in three days due to errors in the switch from port management system GCNET to UNIPASS.
Isaac Adongo, the Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central and Minority Spokesperson on Finance who made the claim at a press briefing in Accra yesterday said the anomaly occurred from April 28 to 30 this year.
He said the revenue loss had continued till June causing huge financial loss to the country.
“In Tema, no single end-to-end transaction has gone through since 1st June This is how the system will operate even after the backlog of Wes Blue/GCNET transactions are cleared at excessive revenue loss to the state,” he said.
He said, “No entry has been processed at the Elubo border for one week. All revenue for the state for one week completely lost and entries are not going through at KIA and declarants are compelled to make payments against clearance to be corrected later.”
Mr Adongo alleged that “out of 750 clearing agents on the Wes Blue/GCNET system, only 450 are able to access the dysfunctional ICUMS with no end product. About 300 agents can’t access this bogus system”.
According to Minority Spokesperson following all protocols for a transition and conducting “a pilot would have cleared the way for a seamless transition from an end to end digital system to an end to end digital system”.
He said there was no need to replace the tried and tested GCNET and West Blue adding that the integration proved successful, resulting in government revenues consistently rising (except in 2019 when government reduced benchmark values at the ports) to the admiration of all governments.
The data he said showed that customs revenue generated through the system rose from GH₵7.5 billion in 2015 to about GH₵13.2 billion in 2018. This represented an accumulated growth in customs revenues between 2015 and 2018 of about 76 percent.
“Unsurprisingly, the system the two companies have put together has not had any system breaches since its inception. Indeed, the system’s robustness in the midst of expanded port operations has been remarkable as evidenced through the increased revenues delivered year-in-year-out,” he said.
In spite of these outstanding performances, he said GCNET and West Blue whose contracts were due to expire at the end of 2023 and 2020, respectively, were paid a combined fee of 0.54% of Free on Board (FOB) taking into consideration government’s 35% shares in GCNET.
“Now, after these years of sustained innovations, deliberate investments and visible improvements in the gains, the country is readying itself to throw away its best trade facilitation service providers for a company that neither has a track record nor a concrete, a defined, a professed or a self-procured system to work with,” he said.
Mr Adongo said the emergence of manual releases and clearing of cargo, manual warehousing of cargo, manual releases of export or transhipment cargo and engendering human interference in the clearing system was an attempt to abuse the port system.
News
Craze for x’mas shopping: Crowded markets, low patronage
Vendors of food and other wares associated with the Christmas celebration have expressed surprise at the low patronage despite the increased number of visitors to some of the major markets across the capital.
Four days to the celebration(Christmas), the markets are filled with various products ranging from food, clothing, livestock and many other stuff, but according to the vendors, patrons are doing more ‘window’ shopping.
The Spectator on visits to some of the markets in the capital, notably the Odawna, Makola, Accra Central Business District, New Town and others made similar observations as shoppers crowd them but did little in terms of purchases.
The paper also observed that majority of vendors, originally selling other wares have switched to product related to the festive season.
What it means is that there are a lot more clothes, food and vegetables, livestock and poultry, toys, firecrackers, drinks of different types and many others on display.
The markets have also stretched to the pedestrian pavement, leaving very narrow spaces for commuters to move about freely.
That, in addition to a few of the female vendors dressed in coloured attires to reflect the occasion, has heightened the euphoria, leaving the low sales as the only headache for the vendors.
Speaking with this paper, they sounded very optimistic, believing that sales would improve in the last few days to the yuletide.
According to them, there was the opportunity to sell beyond Christmas as the New Year celebration offers similar opportunity to trade the same wares.
They urged patrons to throng the markets to shop since prices were quite moderate and products affordable for all.
News
Retirement service for Elder John Ackom-Asante,3 others
Retired Deputy Editor of The Spectator, Elder John Ackom-Asante, was last Sunday honoured by the Church of Pentecost Windy Hills District in Kasoa in the Central Region, with a retirement thanksgiving service, after serving for 26 year as an Elder of the church.
He was honoured with a citation and certificate of service along with three other elders who served in the capacity for various years.
Elder Ackom-Asante was baptised at the Darkuman Central Assembly in 1979 and ordained as an Elder in 1997.
The citation read “Your selfless service, zeal, willingness to relate wholeheartedly and your desire to effect change has gone a long way to shape the lives of many people in the church and the nation over the 26 years of your dedication to the service of the Lord.”
Elder Ackom- Asante held many positions at the Darkuman Central Assembly, Obuasi in the Ashanti Region and Tema, serving in various capacities as youth and evangelism ministry leader and marriage counsellor.
He was the founding member of the Darkuman Christian Fellowship, a member of the Greater Accra Christian Fellowship; member of Bible Society of Ghana; founding member Obuasi Chapter Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship International and founding member of New Times Corporation Christian Fellowship and Chaplain, Methodist University Tema Campus 2009- 2010.
As a professional journalist, Elder Ackom-Asante combined effectively and efficiently his duty as a member and elder of the church and the demands of his profession, with admiration from the church, kith and kin, till his retirement on December
From Alhaji Salifu Abdul-Rahaman, Kasoa
