The Finance Committee in a group picture with Ms Valentina Mintah
West Blue Consulting, operators of the Ghana Single Window project, has given assurance that the directive by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for Ghana to operate a 100 percent paperless system at the country’s ports is very feasible even before the September deadline.
Valentina Mintah, Chief Executive of the company, however, suggested that all the systems at the ports ought to be integrated immediately to make the paperless dream a reality.
“The good news is that GPHA, GCNet, West Blue all have excellent systems in place as well as Customs. We just have to see how we integrate which is very possible. We must all work together and respect the data to achieve paperless transaction at the ports.
“We already have the e-payment platform in place where everybody is sharing. We have the registration for a number of key agencies, GSA, FDA to ensure that we have that shared as well.
“The next thing that we need is the declaration and the post clearance all coming in. And we must work together to make this happen. We all need to identify our documents and procedures,” Ms. Mintah noted.
The West Blue Chief Executive made the comments during an interaction with members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Finance when they paid an official visit to the company last week.
West Blue explained its operations to the Committee after which both teams shared ideas on the best way forward as far as boosting trade facilitation and increasing government revenue at the ports were concerned.
After the explanation from officials of West Blue, Member of Parliament (MP) for New Juaben South and Chair of the parliamentary committee, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah, also called for an integration of the systems at the ports.
Dr. Assibey-Yeboah said, “Both GCNet and West Blue are complementary. What I want to see is for them to be working together, integrating their networks and operations for the benefit of the country.
“We have learnt about their operations. I think they are doing something good but I want to see their system integrate with that of GCNet to achieve the paperless at ports……Once revenues are increasing we are fine.”
The call for integration was backed by Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, a member of the Committee and Minister of Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei.
He reiterated the need for West Blue and GCNet to integrate to achieve paperless transactions at ports and said the Parliamentary Select Committee on Finance would do its best for the country.
Single Window Good News
Ms Mintah presented verifiable facts to show that the implementation of the Single Window led to 28.7 percent increase in GRA-Customs revenue in 2016.
She expressed excitement that the Single Window system has brought some efficiency at the ports, reduced time and cost of doing business and minimized corruption at the port.
“Since the introduction of the GNSW’s PAARS last year, traders are able to access Customs Classification and Valuation Report (CCVR) within 48 hours. In some cases, just within an hour. That is a substantial improvement from the previous situation whereby it used to take traders more than a week or two weeks just to get their CCVR,” Ms. Mintah disclosed.
A Business Desk report