Destination Inspection companies to be probed

Page 24: Daily Graphic, May 6, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE National Security Secretariat is to investigate the operations of all destination inspection companies (DICs) in the country and explore grounds for returning their functions to the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS).
The investigation is to establish any anomalies associated with the operations of the DICs.
Other subjects for the investigation include the operation of the tracking system which was instituted to ensure that transit goods actually got to their destinations and reports that a lot of the transit goods were being offloaded in Kumasi and other parts of the country.
The effect of such offloading of goods within the country is a huge loss of revenue to the state. Further to that, the nature and quality of the goods so left in the country cannot be guaranteed because they are exempt from internal checks.
As a first step, the National Security Secretariat has requested for a copy of an agreement purported to have been signed between the previous government and Ghana Link Network on Sunday, December 28, 2008 to examine its contents and the obligations of the state under it.
The government’s decision to go into these matters stems from the agitation by some CEPS officials and other stakeholders that CEPS was gradually being stripped of its major functions as a security agency. Currently, its border patrol and inspection functions have been taken away from it, with the inspection duties being handled by the DICs.
What CEPS has been left with now is revenue collection, which its workers say personnel of the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department or the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) could easily do on behalf of the state.
They also raised concerns over the lack of transparency in the bidding process leading to the extension of the contracts to the DICs and wondered why the state invested so much in acquiring offices, gadgets and the training of personnel of CEPS to take over destination inspection, only for the state to turn around against its own policy and that of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
According to CEPS sources, under the WTO schedule of agenda, CEPS was to take over destination inspection by January 2009, while Gateway Services Limited (GSL), which was contracted in 2000 to do the work of destination inspection, was expected to wind up in 2010.
Another source within National Security also confirmed that as a result of the agitation, the National Security Secretariat had been tasked to re-examine the whole system, including vetting the companies and advising the government accordingly.
It said the National Security Co-ordinator, Lt Col Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (retd), had sent a letter to the Commissioner of CEPS asking for a copy of the agreement between it and Ghana Link Ltd which resulted in the formation of the Ghana Customs Inspection Company.
It said the government wanted to block every revenue leakage as much as possible and also ensure that Ghanaians did not suffer unduly from certain policies which might see traders shifting their expenses to consumers.
In addition to the GSL which began operating in the country in 2000, three other DICs, namely, BIVAC International, Inspection and Control Services and Ghana Link Network, have also been in operation.
The DICs were initially engaged to do price qualification and classification of goods on behalf of the government, build price database for CEPS and subsequently transfer the know-how to CEPS at the end of their contract terms so that it could take over those responsibilities.