Question marks on auctions at Tema Port

Accra, Sept. 12, GNA - Ms. Millicent Kweikor Akpo-Teye, until recently Head of the Auction Unit of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), on Wednesday said no sanctions were applied to successful bidders who abandoned their containers at the Tema Port. Lack of sanction against such bidders partly explains the congestion at the Tema Port. When bidders do not pay for their bids, the second highest bidder is offered the container or it is re-auctioned. Testifying before the Justice Samuel Glenn Baddoo Committee in Accra, Ms. Akpo-Teye said CEPS did not offer any warranty for quality, quantity and condition of goods in a container after a successful bidder had paid for a container.

The bidder bears any risk for leaving the container in the port. The witness said there had been instances when people had bid for containers but rather abandoned them because they did not find buyers. Also, there were no official records of progressive bid prices. Ms. Akpo-Teye agreed that there had been situations of bedlam when auctioneers ran into crowds of bidders who noisily struggled to mention higher bid prices to outdo their competitors.

According the witness, when a bidder won a bid, the chit for the payment of the container was released immediately or later, but apart from vehicles, no follow- up details as telephone numbers or contacts were taken.

Ms. Akpo-Teye said some bid prices had gone far above the reserved price, which was the price a container had been marked to be sold, citing an instance where a container marked below 200 Ghana cedis had been auctioned for 2,000 Ghana cedis.

Some of this had often been done without recourse to the Customs head office, she said.