Eight CEPS officials, one policeman arrested over Anas' cocoa smuggling story

Nine arrested over Anas' cocoa smuggling saga         Eight Customs officers and a policeman implicated in the smuggling of cocoa to neighbouring countries have been arrested by police CID. Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Kwesi Ofori confirmed this to Joy News on Monday. The nine were captured on a video in a comprehensive undercover investigations led by ace investigative journalist and sub-editor of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Anas Aremeyaw-Anas on how Ghana's cocoa get smuggled. DSP Ofori told Joy News reporter Benjamin Tetteh the police have begun further investigations into the matter and will soon arraign the suspects before court. This he said is part of measures to rid the security of bad nuts, but was quick to add that the accused persons will first have their day in court to defend themselves. Source: Myjoyonline.com

Prez Mills Lashes At CEPS…There’s Too Much Corruption Within Service

President John Evans Atta Mills today turned the heat on officials of the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) when he hit hard at some of them by accusing them of aidingsmugglers in defrauding the country of millions in revenue. Lamenting on the high level of corruption within the CEPS, President Mills, in a rare show of angerand in rather uncharacteristic harsh tone said, what he witnessed, buttressed reports of the connivance by some CEPS officials together with other economic saboteurs in fleecing the nation.

“Today CEPS; I’m telling you, I’m also getting a team to go round and oversee your operations, I’m not hiding it. Because, we own Mother Ghana something. The people who are crying in the streets, the people who are saying there are no jobs, the people who are saying that the economy is not working for them. You cannot have a strong and viable economy without the necessary resources and CEPS, must live up to its expectation and its standard, because in quite a number of cases we are under-collecting. If I ever doubted that…some of the people in CEPS were really working against the economy, what I saw with my own eyes and heard with my ear, convinced me beyond any reasonable doubt, that, if this is a person who has sworn to work in the interest of our nation and he can boast so brazenly and even aide smugglers to carry up cocoa across the border, I am saying my brothers and sisters, this is the time for introspection,” he charged.

President Mills passed these comments when he paid an unannounced visit today to some of the nation’s revenue collecting agencies.

Activities at the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), the Value Added Tax (VAT) Secretariat, the Finance Ministry and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) literally grounded to a halt when His Excellency continued with his extraordinary unannounced visits to some state institutions.

On Thursday, April 1st, President Mills paid a surprise historic visit to the Accra Psychiatric Hospital and said he was drawn to the hospital by the mounting challenges the hospital and mental health care system in general faced and promised to give the necessary assistance to solve those problems.

Whiles CEPS is the state organization responsible for the collection of taxes levied on Imports, Exports and some locally manufactured goods, the IRS, has the unique role of identifying the taxpayer, assess the taxpayer to tax, collect the tax and penalties assessed and pay all amounts collected into the Consolidated Fund to aid in National Development.

But the operations of these institutions, most especially the CEPS, have come under some intense media scrutiny and savoury attacks by some well-meaning Ghanaians.

Addressing staff of the Finance Ministry, President Mills said his administration is always mindful of the sacred obligation to build a Better Ghana and will lived up to expectations, at the end of its four year tenure in office.

“We’re not insensitive; we’re not in the Castle because every morning the Governor brings us loads and loads of cash to sit on and to sleep on. We’re there because we’re cognizant of the sacred obligation that has been thrust on us to build a Better Ghana…No gov’t starts afresh. Every gov’t has to continue from where others have left off; this is what some people conveniently forget. But Criticisms there will be, noises there will be. But noises and criticisms can never drown the sacred facts on the ground. We’re on a journey; we’ve a four year mandate and we’re always aware that the people of Ghana have reposed confidence in us. And the least that we can do is to ensure that we justify this confidence,” he stated.

Ghana:Finance Minister strikes at corruption-ridden CEPS

Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffour The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffour, has taken the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) to task and challenged its leadership and workers to rid the service of its perceived corruption. In addition to its corrupt image, the minister also chided the service for failure to meet its revenue collection targets, saying nothing could explain the sloppy performance it registered. The usually calm Finance Minister expressed his frustration during a surprise visit to the service's largest collection point at the Tema Harbour. He expressed regret at the frequent negative reports of corruption and malfeasance within the service and told the Commissioner of CEPS and the entire staff to be proactive and boldly come up with interventions to raise the sunken image of the service and win back public trust and confidence. The Commissioner of CEPS, Mr Richard Kumah Lanyon, told reporters later that the inability of the service to meet its revenue collection targets was largely due to issues such as the downward revision of petroleum taxes, exemptions and the global recession that had affected the volume and value of imports into the country. In his admonition, Mr Duffour had said, "Much as the government accepts that there are logistical and technical challenges hindering your delivery, the growing trend of negative conduct and reportage go on to retard the country's development, thus leaving the citizens in poverty." He noted that the Tema collection of the service accounted for 55 per cent of the country’s total domestic revenue mobilisation but the service failed to achieve the set target, which he said dwindled massively last year to about 40 per cent, a situation he described as spelling doom for the country's growth. Dr Duffour was at the port for a day's working visit to familiarise himself with the revenue collection modules of CEPS. He expressed regret that allegations of corruption, malfeasance and massive fraud in the service continued to make headlines, quizzing, "Why can't you go out and embark on a massive image cleansing exercise that will go into restoring the service’s trust among the public?" "It always saddens me to see my picture in the papers each time unspeakable publications about the service get to the public, just because 1 am your sector minister," he lamented. During an interaction with the workers, some of them expressed worry over the outsourcing of some of the core functions of CEPS, such as valuation and classifications, to private companies, a situation they described as having a toll on their set targets and charged the government to revisit the issue to ensure that the country derived maximum benefit from destination inspection. The minister also paid a courtesy call on the Director-General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, Mr Nestor Paul Galley, and assured him of the government's plans to transform the port 'into a hub in the West African sub-region. Mr Galley told the minister that the implementation of the axle load regulation which began in June 2009 had brought about a drastic reduction in vehicular traffic at the port. According to him, container toll had also dropped by 10 per cent, thereby affecting the authority's overall profit level and, therefore, the level of dividend to the government. He called for government's support towards the port's development through the granting of soft loans to facilitate its activities. Source: Daily Graphic

Government to probe NHIS

Health Minister George Sipa Yankey Health Minister Dr George Sipa Yankey says government would soon probe district Health Insurance Schemes to stump out what he described as “the haemorrhage the system is suffering.” Dr Yankey said corruption in the administration of the scheme is gradually stalling its smooth operation. “There is so much corruption, so much pilfering, so much over billing and if all these can stop, we would be able to have enough resources to fund the National Health Insurance Scheme,” he stressed. The Health Minister was reacting to comments by a former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Badu Akosah, that the one-time premium payment promised by government is not practicable because the system is currently under-funded. Prof Akosah had insisted that the country’s health system was in bad shape because “the per capita expenditure on health is very poor.” The former GHS boss compared Ghana’s less-than-$14 per capita budget on health to those of the UK and US which stood at £2000 and $4000 respectively, and said if government goes ahead to implement the one-time health insurance policy it would place the health sector under serious financial strain. On funding Dr Sipa Yankey insists the scheme has so far been less dependent on premium payments which contribute only 10% to the scheme, stressing, the programme would continue to run with funding from CEPs, VAT and SSNIT. In the lead up to the 2008 elections the then opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) promised to scrap the annual payments of health insurance premiums and replace it with a one-time premium. Beneficiaries under such a scheme would pay once to enjoy free healthcare for a lifetime. Since assuming power some eight months ago, the ruling NDC has firmed its campaign promise and insisted Ghanaians would enjoy a health insurance system better than the one introduced by its predecessor. Dr Yankey said it is government’s intention that “ultimately health becomes free to every Ghanaian,” as is the case in Cuba and other countries. The Health Minister however says the current administration will have to tackle corruption in the scheme for such a promise to become reality. “If you check with the district schemes, they don’t account to anybody for it and this is something we are going to deal with. So monies that have been slipping from the scheme, we’re now going to bring it on board,” he said. Story by Fiifi Koomson/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana