*¢5 Billion To Be Recovered For Gov’t *

National Security operatives have smashed fraudulent syndicates at the Tema Port, reaping for the country of billions of Ghana cedis in the process.

The modus operandi of the members of the syndicates, who are cohort with officials of the Customs Excise and Prevent Service (CEPS), is to contact importers who have goods to clear and promise them they can clear their cargoes at a cheaper rate than the assessed duties on the Final Classification and Valuation Report (FCVR) by the Destination Inspection Companies (DIC).

Sometimes, they promise to clear the cargo as low as half the assessed duties after the evaluation. After negotiating and collecting some percentage of the duties from the importers, the syndicates, with the knowledge that duties are not immediately paid on warehouse cargoes, put in applications for warehousing, using faked letterheads to clear the cargoes.

But instead of sending the cargoes to the warehouses as required, they usually divert it directly to the importers, who wrongly believe that duties have been paid.

A total customs duties to be recovered on the goods amount to over GH¢500,000 (five billion old cedis). The operations of the clearing companies, which have allowed their documents to be used to defraud the state, have been blocked by customs until the clearing companies, syndicates and the importers refund the whopping customs duties on the goods.

Some names of the syndicate include; Nana Kofi Sarpong, David Quartey alias ‘Stone’, Isaac Kofi Odum alias Ike, Michael Allotey alias Paa Nii, Michael Quansah, Cephas alias Paa Kwesi and Stephen Asamoah, a Customs Officer at the Tema Port.

The recognised clearing companies that stamped declarations for the syndicates include Fantega Company Limited, Godysam Company Limited, Kanshipp Gh Ltd, Mascimex Limited, Matalgo Agency Company Ltd, Mokmah Services Limited, Parkobi Clearing Agencies, Tesco West Africa Agencies, Trafix Limited, Transglobal Freight Int. Services and Walterton Clearing & Forwarding AGT

Some importers who became victims or were accomplices in the fraud iclude Philip Danquah, Agyemang Duah Grace, EBM Investment Ghana Ltd, Therak Entreprise, Mass Product Ent, Yinlida Ghana Company Limited, Georapo Limited, Xing Long Company Ltd and Georgina Agyei Asare.

Others are Virgin Film Production, Gaheni Ventures/ Opoku Mensah Bonsu, Amanbis Ventures, Yaw Acheampong, Mass Production Ent/ Sarpong Kwadwo, Builders Accessories Gh. Ltd, God Is Our Hope Trading Ent, Robert Asante Enterprise and Douglas Adjei

Goods which were diverted are polyester and cotton fabrics, baby diapers, stabilisers, tomato paste, vehicle outer covers and rims, men and women wear, cappuccino biscuits, energy drinks, shopping bags, safety matches, energy saving bulbs and electrical items.

Insiders at the Larry Gbevlo-Lartey-led National Security told The Herald that their investigations have so far established that the syndicates have no companies and offices themselves but rather use recognised clearing companies at the Tema Port to process their fraudulent documents for various fees.

It was surprisingly discovered that these diversions have gone undetected by CEPS official all this while. It was realised that in some cases, customs officers had even assisted the fraudsters to divert the warehouse cargoes leading to the lose of billions of Ghana cedis.

Presently, Mr Stephen Asamoah, the Customs Officer at the Tema Port is currently on interdiction for assisting the fraudsters to remove tracking seals that he himself affixed on warehouse cargo and immediately turned around to remove the seals when the truck left the port.

Stunned by the discovery, the security operatives say “some of the importers must be part of the fraud themselves. Because why is it that the importers do not ask for their clearing documents after receiving their cargo”?

Why is it that customs cannot detect the diversion the same day that the cargoes leave the port? Is there no serious communication between the Custom Officers in charge of warehousing at the port and the custom resident officers at the warehouses?

“This is surprising in this world of mobile phones that even children are using,” one of the operatives lamented to The Herald.

“Warehouse cargoes are supposed to be physically escorted by CEPS officers but these have been replaced by tracking devices. The tracking devices, which are supposed to sound alarms when there is a diversion or when the cargoes have been tempered with, are not effective. What security is in place for warehouse goods?” he further questioned

The operatives further discovered that the tracking devices for the huge volume of daily warehouse transactions were not enough and that although security for the transportation of warehousing goods from the Tema Port is paid for by the importers to GC e-track Company, the providers of these security devices only making good money for virtually no work done.