After being accused of corruption

GIS, CEPS to Sack Corrupt Officers
Posted: The Chronicle | Tuesday, December 1, 2009

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) and the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) have vowed to weed out the supposed 'few' bad nuts among them from the Services. This was after a data gathered by the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) indicted the two security agencies together with the Ghana Police Service (GPS) of massive corruption.

The data report which was gathered between the periods of September and October 2009 by three separate teams revealed serious delays and widespread corruption along the Tema-Ouagadougou trade corridor.

In a swift response to the research findings, the Head of Communications of the Ghana Immigration Service, DSI Francis Palmdeti said the GIS was prepared to dismiss any individual or group of persons who are proven to have compromised their conscience for money.

He has, therefore, encouraged those who fall victim to some of these corrupt practices to report the officers involved for prompt action, since they were not prepared to sacrifice the name and reputation of the service for anything.

On his part, Assistant Collector Phillip Amoh of the Public Relations Department of the CEPS gave the Service's commitment to institute punitive measures against officers who indulge in corrupt practices to serve as a deterrent to others who may be harbouring the intention to take bribes.

Speaking at the report launched in Accra yesterday, Director of Programmes at the LRC, Ms. Daphne Lariba Nabila talked of serious delays and widespread corruption along the trade route where drivers were stopped not less than 24 times, which averages to 2.3 times per 100km.

She noted that CEPS agents have set up the most checkpoints with an average of 9.5 stops per trip while the GPS averaged 6.5 stops per trip. In Ghana, the report indicates that drivers paid from GH ¢2.00 to GH ¢3.00 in bribes per stop, with CEPS officers accepting no less than GH ¢3.00.

The report further has it that on any given day, the number of trucks plying the route can reach 120, thereby making the total amounts of bribes collected estimated to reach GH ¢12,000 per day, GH ¢84,000 per week, GH ¢360,000 per month and GH ¢4,380,000 per year.

In addition, the report further noted that each of these stop causes delay, particularly when drivers try to bargain, indicating "on every journey, drivers were delayed from 5 to 20minutes per stop. On an average journey, it is said that a driver will be delayed a total of 5hours which averages to 29minutes per 100km. At the Ghanaian border for instance, the report indicates that GIS officer collected a minimum of GH ¢5.00 bribes per person and often asked for more.

In order instances, a traveler with all documents crossing the Ghana border to Burkina Faso was said to have been asked to pay GH ¢20.00 and when he offered to pay only GH ¢15.00, he was detained in custody for not less than 45minutes whilst those who were unable to pay were not allowed to cross the border.

The report further reveals that foreign nationals travelling in Ghana are stopped more frequently, and pay higher bribes than their Ghanaian counterparts, stating "Burkinabe businessmen travelling from Kumasi to Paga endured 19 stops by Police and CEPS, and paid a total of GH ¢48.00 in bribes per person. It was thus noted that it took them 12hours to complete their trip. Ghanaians on the other hand were said to have endured 10hours with 15 stops and a total of GH ¢35.00 in bribes per person.

Ms Nabila thus believes that these practices are a direct violation of obligations under the ECOWAS treaty to "grant full and unrestricted freedom of transit through its territory for goods proceeding to or from a third country and such transit shall not be subject to any discrimination, quantitative restrictions, duties or other charges."

Meanwhile, information available indicates that there are more stops in Ghana than in Burkina Faso and for that matter, drivers are unlawfully charged a total of 20,000 CFA to enter Burkina Faso and 12,000 CFA to exit.

Once inside Burkina Faso it is said that there are no less than 3 stop s before Ouagadougou whilst travelers pay 50 CFA at a toll booth.

However, a report released by the Improved Road Transport Governance (IRTG) initiative on interstate trade corridors for the second quarter of 2009 has it that the number of checkpoints have increased by 6% whilst the value of bribes collected have increased by 24% and the delays caused by checkpoints increased by 11%.

But Ms. Nabila attributes some of these worsening trends to the introduction of axle-load weight restrictions. This, according to her, was because "agents at axle-load weighbridge stations will fine drivers for being overloaded but do not provide a receipt to legitimize the transaction", stressing "in Ghana, agents operating toll booths and weighbridges collected the most bribes, followed by Customs agents, then Police officers and finally Immigration officers."

As a result of the widespread practice of corruption along the Tema-Ouagadougot route, the LRC says "drivers and traders are growing to accept bribery and long delays as the order of the day", emphasizing "some drivers set bribe money aside for Police, Customs and Immigration officers along the route."

According to the Centre, such additional costs are one of the reasons why transportation in West Africa has become the most inefficient and most expensive in the world, stressing "inevitably, these higher costs of transport are added to the price of goods and are passed on to consumers in Ghana and neighbouring countries."