Kweku Kwarteng
KWAKU KWARTENG, Deputy Minister for Finance in charge of revenue, says the roll out of UNIPASS, government’s new electronic customs clearing system at the country’s ports, could not start on Monday because of delayed administrative instructions to customs officers.
Mr Kwarteng, who was speaking on Peace Fm recently, said no amount of resistance would deter government from rolling out the Universal Pass.
According to him, even though technical personnel working on the project expressed satisfaction with the piloting and recommended a full rollout on March 1, 2020, he asked them to start it at limited outlets that handled less than 10% of total import value.
The deputy minister said the new end-to-end system developed by CUPIA, Korea Customs Business arm, was contracted by Ghana Link Network Services Limited in a trade facilitation agreement with the Ministry of Trade and Industry, adding that it was owned by government, which meant that the source code would be in the possession of Ghana.
According to him, UNIPASS made management of unwholesome goods easier and also the ports attractive.
Mr Kwarteng, who described the reaction by freight forwarders towards the new system as more of opposition, said vendors whose contracts had expired and others whose were still valid, could file their complaints to the appropriate authority instead of using the media.
He expressed the hope that the ongoing negotiations would resolve matters without resulting in any judgment debt.
He added that vendors who disagreed with the outcome of negotiations could seek redress in court.
He averred that multiple service providers who worked at the ports did not see eye to eye as they strove to dominate each other, a development which was fomenting corruption at the ports and leading to revenue leakages.
Such was the reason why, he said, government decided to replace the existing multiple service providers with a single service provider who could offer an end-to-end system capable of significantly reducing leakages, undervaluation and other illegal activities.
Additionally, Mr Kwarteng disclosed that Ken Ofori-Atta the Finance Minister and President Nana Akufo-Addo were in South Korea to see how UNIPASS worked, saying they were impressed with what they saw, hence the decision to deploy it in Ghana.
According to him, several tests had been conducted for over a year, which included stress tests, adding that so far, all the tests had been successful.
With the simulation exercises at all entry points, he said everything went well.
Freight forwarders recently raised concerns about the UNIPASS rollout.
Edward Akrong, President of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders, who admitted attending training organised on UNIPASS, said he did not see anything different from the system being operated by existing vendors.
According to him, he had no knowledge of any piloting of UNIPASS, saying the preparation towards the rollout was not comprehensive, even though training for stakeholders started lately at Elubo.
For him, the existing systems were built overtime and should be supported to include functions that would deliver the results government expected.
BY Samuel Boadi