Coronavirus fear hits customs, ports over UNIPASS

Ghana has increased the risk of spreading the deadly coronavirus among its citizens by opening up the country’s ports and all points of entry to frequent visits by persons from South Korea, which has the highest number of confirmed cases in Asia after China, for them to take charge of the Ghana National Single Window (GNSW) and also train officials of the Customs Excise and Preventive Services (CEPS).

Though the President Akufo-Addo led government has placed an embargo on all government appointees from foreign trips unless it is critically important, the same government is saying South Koreans should be at liberty to be frequently hopping between their country and Ghana although their country has recorded over 8000 confirmed Coronavirus cases and 75 plus deaths.

Ghana is taking this scary decision at a time other counties are closing their borders and ports to persons from affected countries. Ghana is, however, asking the South Koreans to be frequenting the country and to be having regular engagements with Ghana’s Customs officials and single window services for all imports into Ghana including food, drinks, clothing and pharmaceuticals.

Compromised govt directive

On Sunday March 14, Ghana government issued a directive that “all travel to Ghana is strongly discouraged until further notice” but the same government has decided to allow the UNIPASS team from South Korea to frequently visit Ghana to offer training services to officials of CEPS on how to operate a supposedly superior single window system better than the current systems being operated by West Blue and GCNet although the Korean system has NOT BEEN TRIED in Ghana.

Lies told the President

The New Publisher has gathered that the promoters of Ghana Link/UNIPASS contract are claiming do not need the systems of West Blue and GCNet to operate meanwhile, Mr. Carl Sackey, Deputy General Manager of GCNet, was on national television Sunday evening to confirm that his company received an official letter from Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo, requesting that it should hand over its systems to the transition team in charge of the supposed UNIPASS takeover.

West Blue, has also confirmed to have received a similar letter, requesting it should have over its system.

Strangely, the contract government signed with Ghana Link/UNIPASS stated categorically that government has to take over the systems of the current vendors and hand over to Ghana Link/UNIPASS before the company can start operations.

The New Publisher has sighted a copy of the Trade Facilitation Agreement between the Ministry of Trade and Nick Danso’s Ghana Link and it has the following stated as a condition precedent:

“The Parties obligation under this Agreement shall come into effect only when all of the following conditions have been met.

“The Government has handed over the GCNET and any other third party operations including the country’s single window trade operations and other support services relating to the processing of custom documents at the Ports to the Contractor.

“The Contractor has commenced operating the system handed to it by the Government including the country’s Single Window trade operations and other support services relating to processing of custom documentation at the Ports.

“Commencement and completion of all the necessary transitional and interim processes that the Government and Government Regulatory Authorities need to undertake in order to be ready to take over by the Contractor.

“The Contractor shall provide for the acceptance of Government a bona fide proposal on the detailed agreements including defined substance, timing and assessment criteria of the Services, including technical requirement, development plan, implementation plan and roll out plan with timelines of the completion of the customized UNIPASS.

“As soon as the Contractor implements the System, the Government shall take all necessary steps to pay for all services rendered.”

As it stands now, the relevant government stakeholders within government have not been given a fair opportunity to view a demonstration of the supposed superior system and why the Ghana government must at all cost take the risk of disrupting trade facilitation and revenue generation at the ports.

Panic at Ports

The entire proposed UNIPASS takeover in the wake of this coronavirus pandemic has sent fear among CEPS officials who are to have regular engagements with the team from South Korea.

Even before the COVID-19 scare, there had been grumblings that the UNIPASS system is overly problematic. But there seems to be a culture of silence and fear after word went round, courtesy Deputy Finance Minister Kweku Kwarteng, that President Nana Akufo-Addo, himself was the one who travelled to Korea and approved the Ghana Link/UNIPASS deal for Ghana.

This shocking claim from Kwarteng that Nana Akufo-Addo was behind the Ghana Link/UNIPASS deal has attracted a lot of disaffection and condemnation for the President, especially when the deal itself has been enveloped in several controversies, uncertainties and the company itself has consistently failed to deliver.

It also came as a surprise that the President would not have done some due diligence before personally approving of a contract that has sparked civil society groups, think tanks, relevant stakeholder institutions and the general public all expressing shock and dismay.