Tema, Sept. 18, GNA - The Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), on Tuesday launched the second E-Monitoring System at the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF) in Tema. The launch was the first in a series of stakeholders' meetings that brought together warehouse operators, free zone operators, transitors, haulage truckers, freight forwarders and officers of CEPS. The system, first to be operated in Tema and Accra, is to help with the location of containers at the ports and check unofficial tampering with containers.

Mr. Paul Nkansah, Assistant Commissioner in charge of Human Resource, said the system was to track down all vehicles and cargoes under the bonded regime.

Mr Nkansah said the system would serve as security for both CEPS and freight forwarders as both parties did not want to lose revenue and goods.

He said for stakeholders to have a quicker and less human intervention when their trucks and cargo were on transit, the system was going to see to the protection and handling of cargoes. Mr. Charles Sablah, Chief Collector at the CEPS Headquarters, said the implementation of the system, which would start from October, and would be in three phases. The first phase covers transit points, bonded warehouse, free zones, re-export regimes and manufacturers who claim drawback within the Tema and Accra Collections. The second phase would see the system covering the rest of the country, while the third phase would witness the full implementation of the project.

The system uses a low-intrusive technology to track and monitor goods and vehicles in transit and covers transhipment and temporary importation.

Electronic netting, locks and micro tags will be used to secure and monitor the goods and vehicles being moved under the bonded regimes. This means that alarms will go off when containers are tampered with and location of transit vehicles and cargoes that have changed routes will be found. Bonded warehouses and free zone premises will also be monitored using closed-circuit TV, radio frequency identification and electronic scanners