Officials of the Customs Exercise and Preventive Service (CEPS) at the country’s ports have been accused of deliberately causing delays in the clearing of goods.
Their slow manner in which they work, some clearing agents in the country, have said is part of a scheme developed by the custom officers to sabotage the newly introduced paperless system.
“They [custom] officers are deliberately working to ensure the paperless system is not working…they are sabotaging because they are not receiving tips from the clearing agents…,” a clearing agent, Alex Osei who spoke to Adom News alleged.
The paperless reform which is part of a three-pronged policy announced in May 2017 aimed at eliminating bureaucratic processes and extortion as a result of face-to-face interaction between traders and port officials in the trade supply chain took off at the various ports on Friday September 1, 2017 at the ports.
The official commencement of the paperless clearance system at the country’s ports was greeted with mixed reactions at the Tema Port on Monday following the withdrawal of Customs Compliance officials.
But this friction, the clearing agent alleged must be blamed on the custom officials who are working to sabotage the system.
“We are not against the new system [paperless], it is rather the custom officers who are sabotaging the process…instead of working on the compliance, they delay the process and just want to simply sabotage the government…we accept the paperless system,” he revealed further.