LAST MINUTE AGREEMENT STALLS CEPS' DESTINATION INSPECTION DUTIES (Pg 55) 20-04-09

Story: Kofi Yeboah
AN initiative to enable the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) to rake in huge revenue for the state has been stalled by the stroke of the pen of a former Minister of Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and President’s Special Initiatives.
The initiative was to make CEPS take over its core function of classification and valuation from Destination Inspection Companies (DICs) with effect from January 1, 2009, and the essence was to inject efficiency into its operations and huge revenue into the national kitty.
However, under inexplicable circumstances and at the eleventh hour of takeover, the contract of the DICs to perform that function on behalf of CEPS was extended by one year under the signature of the Minister, Mr Joe Badoe-Ansah, on Sunday, December 28, 2008.
Snippet of information gathered by the Daily Graphic at the CEPS Headquarters in Accra indicates that some members of management were not privy to the extension of the contract, which was reached just four days before the widely publicised decision for CEPS to take over its statutory function from the DICs.
Stakeholders like importers and clearing agents who had anticipated enormous savings on cost and time of doing that business directly with CEPS have been left in big disappointment.
The project involves the installation of IT equipment to enable CEPS to manage electronic information, including the production of Classification and Valuation Report to be transmitted electronically, thereby injecting efficiency into its operations.
The project also involves the integration of the Ghana Customs Secure Document Management System (GCSDMS) into the existing GCNet/GCMS to add value to the current system.
“The aim of the integration is to offer importers/declarants an enhanced single window for clearing their goods from the ports in Ghana. The result will be one seamless CEPS system that will better serve the general public,” an article in the January – March 2009 issue of the CEPS Newsletter stated.
In that regard, CEPS has made huge investments in acquisition of logistics and building of requisite human resource capacity to enable it to perform its core function of valuation and classification.
In October, last year, CEPS inaugurated an ultra-modern ICT office complex at North Ridge in Accra, for its newly established Classification and Valuation Unit as part of plans to take over destination inspection duties from the DICs.
About 70 CEPS officials drawn from its stations across the country were mobilised for the project and equipped with the ability to electronically verify HS Codes, FOB values, freight and insurance values.
At the inauguration ceremony of the IT office complex, the management of CEPS made it clear that adequate preparation in terms of logistics and developing the capacity of CEPS officials had been made, to enable the service to execute its statutory function of destination inspection.
However, three months after the planned takeover had failed to materialise, the officers are said to have been sent back to their original stations, while the ultra-modern IT office complex now stands as a white elephant.
Some CEPS officers, importers, clearing agents and members of the public have expressed surprise at the extension of contract for the DICs, expressing fear that the decision might undermine efforts at modernising the service and particularly achieving its revenue target for this year.
CEPS is the largest revenue collector for the state, banking about 70 per cent of total national revenue collection every year.
The stakeholders are, therefore, demanding answers to the rationale for renewing the contract of the DICs and what the future holds for CEPS as far as performing its core function of valuation and classification is concerned.
Responding to the issue at a new conference in Accra last Friday, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Hanna Tetteh, said after taking office, the government had to assess the issue critically before taking any action.
She explained that there were legal implications regarding the contract and so there was the need to exercise caution to ensure that any action taken was within the ambit of the law.