The four alleged fraudsters
Four freight forwarders are in the custody of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) for allegedly inflating the Authority’s invoices to defraud importers.
The culprits were contracted by the Ghana Catholic Secretariat, a self-declarant organization, to clear goods on its behalf.
The four suspects declared the forged invoices and inflated the cost to the detriment of the Authority and the Ghana Catholic Secretariat.
The purported criminal act of the culprits was said to have cost the institutions GH¢20,000 over a year.
Finance Manager of Tema Port, Tebon Zumah, said vigilance of the port security led to the arrest of the suspects.
According to him, the culprits had been slapped with a penalty of GH¢60,000 for breaching GPHA policy.
He explained:“Once you engage in such fraudulent activity you are supposed to pay three times the amount. In this particular case, the total amount is GH¢20,000. So we will multiply that by three and ask them to pay.”
The Finance Manager stressed that “the most important issue is the effect that these things have on the port. It makes the port look very expensive, which is not right.”
According to him, GPHA was working to make activities at the ports more transparent for customers to have easy access to clearance details to save cost.
“We are looking at those alternatives to make sure that the consignees get involved, get access to the invoices so that if a clearing agent comes to tell you this is what I have printed from GPHA at least you can also verify,” he stated.
In the addition to fines slapped on the agents, the Tema Port Security Manager, Joseph Punamane, hinted of banning the said clearing agents and handing them over to the police for prosecution to serve as deterrent to others.
From Vincent Kubi, Tema