Plot to sabotage President's directive exposed

...

... as G-CNet admits failure at last

At long last, Ghana Community Network Services (G-CNet) Limited has been caught in

the web of treachery! It has admitted failing to help government stop the loss of

revenue at the ports and invariably causing financial loss to the state.

G-CNet is the sole entity entrusted by the state to use its software to validate,

process and record as well as capture electronically all customs duty and tax

payments made by importers and reconcile them with the Bill of Entry and the Final

Customs Valuation Report (FCVR).

Despite incontrovertible evidence that the G-CNet system is porous, allowing the

Destination Inspection Companies (DICs), importers and Clearing Agents to defraud

the state to the tune of trillions of cedis, G-CNet has stubbornly denied this.

In the days leading to last Friday’s crunch meeting at the Castle between President

Mills and other stakeholders in the industry, G-CNet placed many full pages advert

in some ‘friendly’ newspapers, arguing that it is able to deliver as required by the

contract it signed with the state.

However, reality seemed to have dawned on them after President Mills, soon after

hearing all stakeholders ordered CEPS, with its newly acquired software to take over

from G-CNet for the next three months.

The President was scheduled to sign a document authorizing CEPS to this effect but

very reliable sources at the Castle say this is yet to be done as at press time

yesterday thanks to G-CNet’s godfather at the Castle who is hell-bent in ensuring

that this does not come to fruition.

In the meantime, a very tiny section of the media has been deployed to convince

Ghanaians that the President never gave the directive that CEPS take over from

G-CNet.

One such baseless newspaper reports claimed that there was anger at the ports over

the directive by President Mills.

These have all turned out to be complete falsehood aimed at sabotaging the directive

of the President.

Then comes the almighty shocker! While top personnel of CEPS were patiently waiting

for the President to be given the document to sign, authorizing them to take over

from G-CNet for the next three months, G-CNet, acting in cahoots with their Castle

godfather and a Minister of State nicodemously wrote a letter to the Ghana Revenue

Authority (GRA) offering for free a new software it claims it has which is capable

of doing the job of valuation and classification just like the CEPS’ new software!

Obviously, it was a desperate bid to keep a job it has messed up and caused the

nation trillions of cedis that could have been used to provide clean drinking water,

good roads, schools, hospitals and other social amenities for Ghanaians.

The trillion dollar question is why G-CNet has waited all this while to claim it has

the software to stop the nation hemorrhaging financially when they knew CEPS has

been in search of such software since 2006?

Secondly, is the desperate decision to give for free its new software not an

admission by G-CNet that the system it has been operating and which it has stoutly

defended in newspaper pages has failed?

Thirdly, why is G-CNet so desperate that it will even offer for free its software to

help stop the loss of revenue at the ports? Have they become an NGO? What have they

to hide?

In a sharp rebuttal which exposed G-CNet as a bunch of traitors, a senior Customs

Officer revealed that the so-called free software by G-CNet had been tested but has

not been of any help.

“What are they talking about? We tested what they are talking about. It proved

incapable of solving the inconsistencies. What we have acquired now is

state-of-the-art software and we are ready to prove to all and sundry that it will

rake in billions of Ghana cedis for the state,” the CEPS officer said.

According to him, the order of President Mills at the Castle last Friday has to

stand. He decried the last minute mafia tactics to torpedo it.

He said GCNet’s action yesterday means they have not only caused financial loss to

the state but done so wilfully.

The CEPS officer thus called for the immediate arrest of the management of G-CNet.

As at press time yesterday, the CEPS officer and many of his colleagues vowed to

vehemently resist the last minute attempt by G-CNet to torpedo the Presidential

directive.

Members of the Daily Post news room were also shocked at the last minute invidious

tactics by G-CNet to scuttle the directive by President Mills.

As reported in the yesterday edition of the paper, the President’s decision to allow

the CEPS software to run will save the nation from losing US$433.6 million as

revenue.

The $433.6 represents 25 percent of revenue CEPS projects to collect by the end of

this year.

The G-CNet system does not have any tracking mechanism to prevent clearing agents

and importers from falsifying documents with the connivance of DICs to obtain

ridiculously low duties.

The loophole which is tied to that is that importers migrate from one DIC to

another, making government to pay more than one DIC for work done on one importer.

These fraudulent acts are now to be checked with the new CEPS software and no amount

of backstabbing, under hand dealing and sabotage must be allowed to derail it.

There obviously must be more than meets the eye for which the GRA must think twice

before even considering G-CNet’s proposal. They obviously must remember why it is

important to “… fear the Greeks if they give you a gift”

Be that as it may, it is significant to note that the President’s simple order that

the CEPS be allowed to take over with their new software for the next three months

is being disobeyed and sabotaged by some of his own trusted lieutenants who the

Daily Post is set to flush out soon no matter whose ox is gored.

Stay tuned.