The Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana has alleged that government officials at the Office of the Presidency, the Finance Ministry and the office of the Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority share cargoes confiscated at the ports.
Samson Asaki Awingobit claimed that anytime the goods of importers are confiscated and they go to pay the needed taxes to get them cleared, the system shows that someone from either the presidency or finance ministry has already come for them.
The executive director, who made these remarks in an XYZ TV interview monitored by GhanaWeb, added that officials of governments under both the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have all engaged in this illegality.
“Both NDC and NPP should bow heads in shame because they always look at the juicy aspects; the free cars, the re-efer containers (which) contain canned tomatoes, cooking oil and other general cargo items. We know that we auction cars, but to touch general cargo (is bad).
“Someone has brought his frozen food, his tomatoes, cooking oil, and because it has spent 21 days, sometimes less, you will auction it. When you go into the system you will realise that the jubilee house has a hand in it, the finance minister's office has a hand in it, and the commissioner general’s office has a hand in it.
“They share it (confiscated cargo) to the party apparatchiks. So, the customs officer will be there and someone will bring a letter and say I am from the presidency or Ministry of Finance. I’m supposed to come and take this. To the extent that we have seen deputy ministers of finance signing letters for customs officers to hand over particular goods to people,” he said.
He added that this illegality is very unfortunate because it has led to the collapse of many businesses in the country while these current officials enriched themselves.
