Last week, Ghanaians woke up to a curious news item about a Presidential Taskforce that had supposedly uncovered some ‘massive corruption’ at the Customs Bonded Warehouse. According to the story, about 288 companies over a seven year period (2005-2012) carried away various goods from the customs bonded warehouses without paying the relevant taxes.

After painstaking investigations conducted by the Scandal, we have come to the conclusion that this story is a complete farce. It has the semblance of truth but very far from the truth. The truth is that some people have perpetuated a gargantuan fraud against the State that has resulted in the loss of hundreds of millions of Ghana Cedis to the nation, but this fraud certainly did not happen at the bonded warehouse.

First of all, how did the Taskforce arrive at the 288 companies it claims have evaded taxes? Did the Taskforce rely on data from the GCNET System which admittedly was tampered with and has been the subject of investigations by the security agencies? Has there ever been any audit of the GCMS/GCNET System which holds all processed customs data? Or did the Taskforce rely on invoices at the Warehouses? Is the Taskforce able to reconcile records from the GCMS/GCNET System with those at the Warehouses?

Already, a number of companies that have been mentioned by the Taskforce as having evaded taxes have denied the allegations made against them including the State’s own Customs Department, the State’s Own Electricity Company, Hippo, CCTC and many others. Now this is the real story. Read on.

In April this year-2013, a Citizen Vigilante, by name JOE ONYAME aka. KOKU EKPE filed a writ at the Superior Court of Judicature in the High Court of Justice-the Commercial Division, against Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNET), the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

In that writ, the Citizen Vigilante was seeking the court’s order for a comprehensive audit of the Ghana Customs Managements System (GCMS)- a system put in place and managed by GCNET. In his affidavit, Mr. Onyame said among other things that “as someone who is involved in the customs clearing business, I had information leading me to suspect that some nefarious activities were going on with the tacit connivance of officials of GCNET and the GRA”.

The Citizen Vigilante also said that “While 1st Defendant/Respondent (GCNET) has demonstrated the workability and effectiveness of the system to the satisfaction of the Government of Ghana in order to be engaged to undertake such a crucial national exercise, which is the life blood of the national economy, a report has shown that the human element component, has in the course of the operation of the system, been compromised since the very officials who have knowledge of the workings of the system have used their position to manipulate the system to their advantage”.

In June this year -2013, the Court, presided over by Her Lordship Justice Getrude Torkonor, ruled in favour of the Citizen Vigilante and ordered that a comprehensive audit be carried out on the GCMS/GCNET System as was requested. GCNET disagreed with the ruling and has subsequently appealed against the ruling.

Unfortunately, the Attorney General’s Department that represented GRA and the Ministry of Trade in the matter did not show any support for the ruling either, and has adopted a rather nonchalant and passive attitude as GCNET continues to kick against the Audit of the System.

It is strange that a Government that often cries about revenue leakages and revenue shortage will refuse to support a Court Order to audit the very system that could be responsible for those revenue leakages. Even though it is the GCNET that put the System in place and manages it, the System really belongs to Ghana. It is this system that holds the totality of customs processed data, national trade statistics and indirect tax revenues as well as traders and shipping lines. It is the nerve centre of all trading activities that take place at the Port, but has never been audited.

Why should the audit of a System that determines how much the State gets by way of revenue, be left to a Citizen Vigilante to fight for while State Officials who should be protecting Ghana’s interest look on and are rather and seemingly supportive of the private company that is kicking against the audit?

If an audit has not been conducted on the GCMS/GCNET System which has all the processed customs data, how did we come to the conclusion that some companies have evaded tax?

But the story has become even murkier with Dr. Clement Apaak’s recent maneuvers. First, Dr. Apaak formerly Convenor of Forum for Justice and Governance but now Presidential Staffer and Spokesman of the Presidential Taskforce, announced to the world that they have uncovered ‘massive corruption’ involving custom officers and some importers who colluded to siphon goods from bonded warehouses without paying the relevant duties.

Then the state media and some unquestioning independent media did a ‘good’ job of publicizing the news. The story from the Presidency received front page treatment everywhere and Dr. Apaak was on every media platform to discuss the subject and to show how hard President Mahama is working to fight corruption.

But as if that was not enough, Dr. Apaak again granted an interview to an Accra Radio station and alleged that a customs official of the Ghana Revenue Authority is on the run for deleting records and entries of companies that evaded taxes at the bonded warehouse. Records from where? The bonded warehouses or the GCNET/GCMS System which has never been audited?

The Scandal can categorically report that Dr. Apaak got it wrong. No Custom Official is on the run for deleting any record and entries anywhere. It is rather an I.T Specialist and a former employee of GCNET, one Elliot Ansah, who is suspected to have deleted tons of records and entries from the GCNET system allegedly to cover up some massive fraud, who has fled the country. The Valuation Module we are talking about is the GCNET Module put together and operated by GCNET.

Dr. Apaak should be informed that under very bizarre circumstances, the GCMS/GCNET System was allegedly tampered with and has been a subject of strenuous investigations. The allegations are that documents were falsified and entered into the system to beat down import duties or escape the payment of duties all together. These are the records that the former employee of the GCNET is alleged to have deleted from the system before he fled. DR. APAAK PLEASE THAT IS WHERE THE PROBLEM IS AND NOT THE WARE HOUSE. All goods that leave the Port would have undergone valuation and their data entered into the GCMS/GCNET System even before they leave for the Bonded Warehouse.

GCNET has been involved with providing data for customs for a very longtime since the modernization of the destination inspection scheme was adopted in1997. They were the first to provide and install the customs software and indeed have been responsible for managing the platform for the exchange of data since 2000. The totality of customs processed data, national trade statistics and indirect tax revenues as well as traders and shipping lines have always been in the domain of GCNET.

Many experts in this area have advised against this seeming ‘strangle hold’ that GCNET appears to have on trade at the Port, but they have never been listened to by the authorities.

Then in June 2010, and against all the protestations and professional advice from GRA and CEPS officials, GCNET was again given a government contract to install its Valuation Module under the Ghana Customs Management System. The CEPS and GRA officials disagreed with the decision and argued that there was already in existence a system and the facility to do custom Valuation, but the Government preferred GCNET.

To give the job to GCNET, the Government abrogated a contract with Bankswitch which had already set up a system with CEPS at the cost of US$43million for Custom Valuations. As you read this piece, Bankswitch is at the International Court at The Hague, claiming damages of over One Billion Ghana Cedis.

Meanwhile GCNET‘s Appeal against the Audit of the System is at Ghana’s Appeals’ Court and is due to be called any moment from now. It will be interesting to listen to their argument as State Attorneys look on unconcerned. Meanwhile Dr Apaak on the other hand can continue with the media offensive, telling everybody about a manhunt for some so called ‘customs official’ who deleted records and entries from the same GCMS/GCNET System. Interesting times, isn’t it?