The Food and Drugs Board and the Customs, Excise and Preventive Services department are under pressure to solve a riddle that is mocking surveillance on drug importation into the country. The two institutions are being bombarded with information about a syndicate smuggling into the country, large consignments of drugs whose potency and chemical contents have not been subjected to any test. However, the two state institutions are powerless to act because no one has been able to pin point the identity of the companies and the personalities involved. The drug smuggling gang is also denying the state large amount of revenue in import and custom duties, a fact that is serious source of worry to CEPS boss Kofi Poku-Ntiamoah.
Poku-Ntiamoah told Weekend Agenda on the phone, Our borders are leaking. We cannot have a watertight guard of our borders. And that is a problem. It means that many unscrupulous people smuggle all kinds of goods across the borders. I cant discount the fact that some of our personnel might be aiding some of the smugglers but unless someone could volunteer information leading to the syndicate or individual smugglers of drugs or other goods, we cant act."
At the offices of the Food and Drugs Board, exasperated Executive Director Agyarkwa and his deputy Ben Botwe said, the office has been bombarded by several allegations of that nature. My brother, we have been bombarded by such allegations over a period now. We believe there are elements of truth in these allegations. But the problem is that nobody has been able to tell us which personalities or what companies are involved. We find ourselves in a very uncomfortable situation. We cannot act unless we have solid evidence.
Agyarkwa said his organization is working in tandem with the Attorney Generals' Department to introduce a number of legislations that would make it difficult for unauthorized drugs to circulate in the system. Were working on Product Liability Law. This legislation will make it obligatory on the seller to account for everything about the product. With this law, if I am the seller, Im responsible for what I put on the shelves. At the moment the excuse is, Meto fii Alatafoo bi ho (I bought from some Nigerian).
One of the major problems faced by the board is limited staff. We are 60 doing this job. We hope to increase the staff strength to 120. But even that is woefully inadequate. On the average, one person does a job that would normally require five people to do.
One of the measures introduced deals with enhancing the licensing system. We want to enhance the security features so that it does not lend itself to copying, Agyarkwa said. We are also enhancing our post-surveillance activities. Our ports entry points are supposed to be a siege. When the products get to the market, we follow them up to the shelves. He said by administrative guidelines, drugs are supposed to be imported into the country only through the Tema Harbour and the Kotoka International Airport. Until recently, drugs imported by land entry points were classified as smuggled goods. But now, the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization has put a different perspective on it. Now there are drugs manufactured in Nigeria coming in by road.
Even then, there are clear guidelines. The drugs must be totally manufactured in Nigeria. They must be registered in Ghana and must come to a licensed dealer, which must be a pharmaceutical company. Under the law, chemical shops are not supposed to import drugs. He said the Food and Drugs Board have instituted various measures to deal with people flouting the law. We have fined people and blacklisted companies. But there are a number of black spots out there. We're dealing with them.
Agyarkwa said in a number of instances, CEPS officials have alerted the Food and Drugs Board about importations. At the end of the day, it is an attitudinal problem and we should all help to deal with it. The Executive Director appealed to all those developing drug and food products not to hesitate to approach the Food and Drugs Board for registration and licensing. If you develop a product and everything is correct, it takes a maximum of six weeks to get it registered
