WASHINGTON: The Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) says its officials at the country’s ports are unable to conduct exhaustive physical examination of goods arriving at the ports due to congestion.
According to the Commissioner of the division, Mr John Vianney Kuudamnuru, whereas the ban on the importation of certain products are still in place, congestion within the port space has made it difficult for officials to fully unload containers for a comprehensive physical examination to ensure those products are not allowed into the market space.
“Because there are no sufficient spaces to unload an entire container, our officers, in doing the physical examination, may only bring out a few items for viewing on the assumption that the items are legal products that ought to be allowed into the market space,” Mr Vianney said.
He indicated that importers of products such as frozen turkey tails, for instance, would conceal them in the container by covering them with large quantities of frozen chicken to deceive officials to believe that the entire consignment was frozen chicken.
Importers of used clothing, mattresses and pirated textiles, Mr Vianney said, had also adopted similar strategies by diverting them to neighbouring countries where the products were allowed, and then cart them, using the services of smaller boat operators, to coastal communities such as Ada in the Greater Accra Region and parts of the Volta Region, from where they unload them for onward transportation to the various market centres.
He made the disclosures during an interaction with members of the Media Network of the ECOWAS Community Development Programme (ECOWAS CDP) in Accra last Saturday.
