...
... 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.
