With immediate effect, no item will leave the port of Tema in the name of protocol goods as all such goods have been banned from leaving the port.

Director of the port of Tema, Mr. Jacob Adorkor who gave the directive last week, said the port had come under ridicule in international circles as a port where food, drinks and other items belonging to crew members on board vessels are often collected by officialdom.

Items such s food, hard liquor, cigarettes and laptops among others which are normally collected as samples by the various stakeholders operating in the port including the Port Health unit, the Environmental Protection Agency, Customs, Immigration and the Ministry of Agriculture among others which always end up in the car boots of the various officials will no longer be allowed.

Mr. Adorkor has therefore ordered the Harbour Master and the Port Security Manager to ensure that no such items are allowed out of the port in the name of protocol or sample.

The move, according to the Director of Port, is aimed at ensuring discipline and injecting a high level of confidence among port users and the international community, especially as the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority seek to position the ports in the country as the hub in the sub-region.

Mr. Adorkor also instructed that the directive should be conveyed to all the regulatory and standardization agencies operating in the port and that they must respect the directive as such.

There have been complaints in the past from some importers, consignees and even freight forwarders concerning the amount or quantity usually collected by the various standardization and regulatory officials as samples.

The situation is further exacerbated by the fact that there are close to 20 such organisations operating in the port and that tells the volume of items that are taken by each and every one of the organisations as samples and in other cases as protocol goods.

It is believed that with the current directive from the Director of Port, importers, consignees and freight forwarders will heave a sigh of relief as the cost of such samples and protocol goods to their operations was very high.