Manual Ports Kill Custom Officers

By Frederick ASIAMAH & Ernest KISSIEDU

At least 30 officers of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) have died this year as a result of stress related to the manual clearing system at the ports.

This has come up as Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia leads high level efforts to banish the manual paper clearing system and commence the much touted paperless port system on Friday, September 1, 2017.

The benefits of the system have been listed mainly as reduction in port turnaround time and minimisation, if not elimination, of corruption.

But it has also emerged that the paperless port system will also drastically reduce stress and ultimately death rate among officers of the Customs Division of GRA.

As of the end of the first half of this year, 30 customs officers working at the ports had died.

"We are putting too much stress on custom officers. Statistics of the dying rate in the custom service is very high and they fall within 39 to 45 years," said Richard Yawtse, Deputy Commissioner in-charge of Policy and Programmes at Customs.

"We need to expand a little bit to help us lessen the burden on officers," he noted when speaking at a sensitization forum on the paperless system for media personnel in Accra last week.

According to him, CEPS will have to increase the staff strength considering the high death rate linked to the stress in the current system.

Commissioner Yawtse therefore debunked the notion that the paperless system will create unemployment in the sense that some custom officers may be laid off. He stressed that Customs is already understaffed so there is the need to expand a bit.

Corruption and delays

The paperless system is one of the three key targets outlined by the Vice President in making Ghana competitive. The other two are joint inspection at the ports and the removal of all custom barriers that hinder the effective movement of goods across the country's internal borders.

In May, Vice President Dr. Bawumia condemned the level of corruption at the ports, describing the situation as very alarming. Thus, government is seeking to reduce the revenue losses associated with the high human interface currently being employed.

Government has since prioritised the introduction of the paperless system to minimise human interference, eliminate delays and inject efficiency in cargo clearance at the Tema and Takoradi ports.

The paperless system is also aimed at reducing the turnaround time for importers with Vice President Dr. Bawumia demanding that the system should be designed to ensure that clearance of goods, subsequent to completion of all documentation and payment of fees, is undertaken within four hours.

Meanwhile, Commissioner of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Emmanuel Kofi Nti, says the paperless system will reward complying importers while duly punishing recalcitrant ones.

He added that, "Reducing delays at the ports will result in a better rewarding facility for declarants who wilfully and voluntarily comply with truthful, accurate and genuine documentation. A very fair and transparent system of classification and valuation of imported commodities; sanctioning those who will be non-compliant and wilfully attempt to defraud the nation of the needed revenue required to finance the needed development."

Yet, some importers and exporters think the paperless system must not be implemented just yet. They feel it must be delayed because many stakeholders are not well sensitized about the new initiative.

A pilot of the system scheduled for clearing agents and the trading public on August 18 did not come off even though the GRA and its collaborators say they have completed training for stakeholders who are very critical for the take-off of the system.

But Stan Wright, Head of Projects at Customs World, insists that the take-off of the paperless system must not be delayed. "The longer you wait, the more competition that's being built around us," he said pointing to neighbouring Togo's free port as a major competition which Ghana can overcome by making its ports more efficient.

"When Ghana is the regional trade hub, then Ghana will be more profitable," he added.

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