Workshop on speedy clearance of goods at ports held

A ONE-Day education and sensitisation workshop on documentation has been held  for customs agents, brokers and freight forwarders, with a call on officials to promptly issue final clarification and verification for clearing goods at the country’s ports.

The programme, put together by the Destination Inspection Companies (DICs), was aimed at improving the capacity of stakeholder bodies, particularly freight forwarders, in the area of clearance process and requirement for documentation.

According to the Corporate Affairs Manager of the Gateway Services Limited (GSL), Ms Ama Addo, the submission of correct documents was important as it helped customs house agents to go through scanning of consignments raising minimum or no queries at all, thereby reducing the length of clearance processes at the ports.

GSL also used the forum to seek the views of importers for the necessary feedback to serve them better.

While importers have blamed delays in the issuance of final clarification and verification reports on DICs, such delays, she said, were often occasioned by the provision of inaccurate data on documentation by agents.

“Ghana’s membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) introduced destination inspection of goods and cargo in 2000 in response to the gateway programme.

This has necessitated the need for customs compliance and modernisation, as well as revenue enhancement and improved security for cargo handling and port management,” Ms Addo said.

She said the destination inspection scheme was designed to reduce clearance time at the entry points, physical examination of  goods and opportunities for fraud.

“Statistics have showed that the introduction of the system has drastically reduced physical examination of goods to 35 and 45 per cent  respectively, with trade volume also seeing a significant increase,” she said.

While lauding the government’s effort at supporting the DICs to increase revenue generation , Ms Addo expressed the hope that the training would improve the capacity of officials and also reduce incidents of under-invoicing and the attendant socio-economic evils.

Participants at the programme called for periodic stakeholder education and also charged the GSL to make use of the positive suggestions from importers and agents.

The Operations Manager of Inspection and Control Services, Mr Dickson Addah, also charged freight forwarders to scale up their activities as they made strides to consolidate gains in the sector.

SOURCE: Della Russel Ocloo, Daily Graphic, Mon June 18, 2012