President of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF) Edward Akrong, has said that the takeover of operations at the port by the Integrated Customs Management Systems (ICUMS) has created a lot of mess for his association.

All transactions related to the import and export of goods at the various ports have since June 2 been conducted through the one-stop service for all customs clearance procedures, dubbed ICUMS.

This follows the successful simulation and piloting of ICUMS at Tema Port, the final port to be hooked onto the system. With the exception of Tema Port, ICUMS has been operating at all entry points across Ghana for over a month now.

ICUMS is a system built by Universal Pass (UNI-PASS), specially tailored to Ghana’s situation and provides an end-to-end supply chain solution that incorporates and consolidates existing systems currently in operation.

Ghana Link Services Limited, which has a 10-year contract with the Government of Ghana as a technical partner, contracted CUPIA of Korea to deploy its electronic customs management system, called Universal Pass (UNI-PASS) which is now known as the Integrated Customs Management System ICUMS, for Ghana’s trade facilitation.

But speaking on the Business Focus Programme hosted by Alfred Ocansey on TV3 Monday, June 8, Mr. Akrong said the takeover is creating more problems for the freight forwarders.

“I must confess that that from where I sit, it is a mess. We have enormous issues with the system as it is right now,” he said.

He added: “Once you have quality assurance then you are assured also that we are going to have a superior system and that gives you a certain hope of things to come.

“We do not have anything against government policy and so we will go along with it but then, if there are issues, we will have to raise them.

“The ICUMS taking over the operations at the port is a mess right now as we speak.”