Wa, Feb. 23 GNA - The Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) has instituted measures to curb the high death rate among personnel of the Service.

Fifty-eight officers of the Service died between January 2003 and February 2005.

CEPS has, therefore, declared the year 2005 as "Health Consciousness Year" During which medical teams would be sent to the various collection stations to determine the health status of officers and to advise accordingly.

Mr Yao Dela Tchorly, Wa Sector Collection Commander of CEPS, announced this at Wa at Command's end of year meeting to assess their performance and strategise for the year.

He said every officer would be compelled to take his or her annual leave and no officer would be allowed to defer his or her annual leave unless upon approval by the Commissioner of CEPS.

He said although the Service was striving hard to collect more revenue, it would not lose sight of the health needs of the personnel and encouraged officers posted to the Region to accept their posting. Mr Tchorly commended the Ghana Police Service for collaborating with them effectively to arrest a large number of unregistered motorbikes.

"This and other avenues enabled us to collect a total of 1.8 billion cedis exceeding our 2004 target of one billion cedis," he said. The Sector Commander pledged that they would do everything possible to collect more revenue this year and asked for cooperation from all stakeholders to generate more income to finance development projects. He appealed to the Government to support them logistically by providing the Service with means of transport good communication gadgets, good roads and incentives to boost their morale to generate more income.

Other heads of Departments and Collection Agencies in the Region attended the meeting, which was climaxed with a get-together.