Ranking Member on the Trade and Industry Committee of Parliament and MP for Bole Bamboi, Yusif Sulemana, has described the country as ‘sick’ following a recent exposé by JoyNews documentary titled ‘Porous Borders.‘
The documentary brings to light the high occurrence of bribery involving customs officials and traders to enable the latter to evade taxes.
Commenting on the soon-to-be-aired documentary, Mr Sulemana stated that the sole reason these officials are able to accept bribes from these tax evaders is that the leadership of the country has not shown commitment in the fight against corruption.
He described the country as sick and therefore demanded an urgent need for a national dialogue on the best approach to resolve the canker.
“That you have custom officials who will go that low to take GH₵200, GH₵400 in order to aid traders to evade tax. It tells you that our country is sick, it tells you that there is a need for a national conversation with respect to how we are going to fight corruption,” he said on JoyFM’s Midday News.
The MP said traders import rice from neighbouring countries instead of the main rice production hubs because the taxes at the ports are too high, stressing that these among other factors must be evaluated in order to resolve the situation.
‘Porous Borders’ airs on the JOYNEWS channel at 8:30p.m. Monday night, July 29.