Coronavirus: Suspend UNI-PASS to curtail GH¢10bn loss – IMANI urges Akufo-Addo

IMANI Africa has urged President Nana Akufo-Addo to temporarily suspend the operations of UNI-PASS and allow GCNET and West Blue to operate for the remainder of the year.

This is to enable the nation to avoid revenue losses, most likely GH¢10 billion given the reduced trade activity due to COVID-19.

The policy think tank has also advised the President to conduct an independent review of the UNI-PASS system.

At the same time, it wants the ministries of trade and finance to share revenue projections from implementing UNI-PASS with Ghanaians.

In a statement to the President titled: ‘Plugging huge revenue gaps occasioned by COVID-19: GCNET and West Blue remain your best port revenue assurers’, IMANI said its argument was premised on recent publications by some media houses.

Firstly, “The state-owned daily, The Ghanaian Times, on April 20, 2020 published the header: ‘Freight forwarders decry delays in clearing goods at Takoradi Port’.

Secondly, “A second report published two days ago by the influential Business and Financial Times newspaper titled: ‘Takoradi port goes back to manual process as angry importers call for unipass-icums halt’ stated among others”.

A third report published a week earlier by Multimedia, titled: ‘UNI-PASS failure puts government under intense pressure’, IMANI said, predicted the above situation.

In this case, the think tank said the above reports do not only deal a blow to the enhanced paperless system that propelled an increase in port revenues from GH¢8 billion in 2016 to a little over GH¢13 billion in 2017 and 2018, adding: “Working with West Blue and GCNET port technologies, it is likely to detract from the assured average daily revenues of almost GHS 33 million and ultimately jeopardise the flow of trade.”

The statement explained: “I do not know what data Custom and Tax Commissioners presented to your Trade and Finance Ministers and the Senior Minister’s Task Force on ports to warrant your apparent blessing of the UNI-PASS system. However, I am convinced that when the above steps are sanctioned, these officers who appear to be taking directives from superiors with non-existent data will have a rethink. They could be vindicated on the superiority of UNI-PASS, too”.

“Right now, though, is not the time for playing games”.

Continuing, IMANI said: “Revenues are a critical part of this country’s path to recovery post-COVID-19, and I agree with a very Senior Official in Ghana's Finance Ministry, who justified your suspension of the partial lockdown to me; that: "The economic cost is so significant, no revenues coming in at all, we won’t be able to function economically.”

“It is entirely probable that these incidents of false starts with the UNI-PASS system are expected with installing new technology systems. However, it is difficult to ascertain this claim, as there has been no independent verification of the robustness of the system. Second and crucially, this is not the time to be playing games with the most significant revenue earner for the country.

“COVID-19 has erased almost 6% of the country’s expected end-year growth of 7.5% leaving in its trail huge gaps in our finances. Our Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta wrote a sobering article in last week’s Financial Times, titled ‘What does an African finance minister do now?’ in the light of COVID-19”, it said.

Further, “Ken correctly understands that “The world is changing. The German chancellor doesn’t want to hear about debt-to-GDP ratios. Unthinkable stimulus packages are being announced, trumping orthodoxies and with no talk of a moral hazard: the G20 packages may end up close to $8tn. Their generous tool kits are not available to us. I am green with envy… ...I need answers” he said.

“I am also envious of the fact that Ghana, a lower-middle-income country was left out of these generous debt-relief packages for the poorest 77 countries of the world- even though we managed to receive almost $500m in debt stand still from the World Bank. This amount constitutes less than a third of guaranteed port revenues for this year under the GCNET-WEST BLUE ports systems scenario pre-covid-19.”