A
scandal involving the clearance of some items suspected to be cocaine
and concealed in a consignment of sugar worth $3 million has rocked the
Port of Tema and the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority
(GRA).
The complex web of conspiracy allegedly involves top officials of Customs and Tema Port officials.
The
136,000 bags of sugar, which had overstayed their two-week grace period
at the port, were eventually confiscated – a development which paved
the way for some officials to connive to have it diverted for individual
gains.
Yaya Kachie, the consignee of the sugar in transit, must
count himself lucky, having succeeded in clearing the contraband stuff
but abandoning the sugar destined for Niger and originating from Mexico.
Corruption
and rot at the Port of Tema can be measured by such malpractices
involving the top echelons of relevant state agencies as being unfurled
in this story.
It has also emerged that details of only 16,000
bags of sugar were fed into the GCNet system, a situation which
facilitated the ploy of the brains behind the aborted efforts to divert
the confiscated consignment.
Yaya Kachie’s primary objective was
the smuggling of the drug and that achieved, abandoned the sugar as it
was of insignificant importance to him.
Fingered in the scandal
are customs officials, one of them a Commissioner and Sector Commander,
and data entry clerks who made the entry into the GCNet system.
The
investigation team probing the issue is said to be baffled about how
transit goods could remain at Tema for over a year, beyond the two-week
grace period, and discharged here anyway.
Regarding the suspected
contraband stuff contained in the transit goods, the shipping agency
(name withheld) may face the law when the investigations are completed,
DAILY GUIDE has learnt.
Matters regarding the confiscated sugar
have taken another turn as ten persons have laid claim to the
consignment, with a certain Samuel Ackah, an Accra-based businessman,
topping the list.
He is being thwarted, however, by a top
government official at the Flagstaff House who, it is suspected, wants
it diverted to another person for personal gain.
Mr Ackah, when contacted on the issue, presented another chapter on the subject.
According
to him, Sucursal Uy, a Uruguay-based company, shipped 6,800 metric
tonnes of Mexican sugar worth $3,910,000 to Tema upon his request and
the consignee being Yaya Kachie of Niger – the man who asked him to do
the transaction.
When the sugar landed, according to him, an
European broker said to be a French national, Philippe Benhas, came to
Ghana to hold a meeting “with me but I had travelled to Kenya on a
business trip. During his visit my office staff were on holidays because
it was a festive season.”
Continuing, he said that his guest
became worried about his absence and his inability to communicate and so
decided to contact the French Embassy in Accra for assistance. The
mission introduced him to Map Shipping Agency to bond the consignment of
sugar – a request which was obliged and the consignment kept in
Warehouse No. 72 at Tema, he added.
“I contacted them to explain
how my buyer, Yaya Kachie, wanted the sugar to reach Niger before he did
the payment,” adding that “I see that as a breach of trust, so I
explained to them again that it will be better if we do an amendment to
the bill of lading into my company’s name, Kairaba Holdings Ltd, but the
shipping company refused and asked them to take money before
instructing them to release it.”
Continuing, he said “I had done
amendment on two occasions (i.e. before releasing for me to load). It
was to my surprise that on 24th August, 2014 Customs issued a memorandum
seizing the sugar which is on transit, when taxes had been evaded.”
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