Ghana lost GH¢100 million in three days due to UNIPASS transition – Isaac Adongo claims

Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central Constituency, Isaac Adongo, has claimed government lost GH¢100 million in three days due to the controversial UNIPASS/ICUMS transition at the country’s ports.

According to him, the loss was incurred as the state did not collect duties and taxes at the ports from May 28th to 30th 2020, following the implementation of the new single window system; UNIPASS/ICUMS.

Speaking at a media engagement on Wednesday, June 10. 2020, Mr Adongo said; “From May 28 to 30, 2020, Ghana did not receive a penny at the ports for clearance of goods and we’ve lost close to GH¢100 million in three to four days just to pave way for the transition of existing systems; West Blue-GCNet to UNIPASS/ICUMS”

“All the protocols for transition and the pilot would’ve cleared the way to have a seamless transition to an electronic end-to-end system and vice versa. Why is the transition and actual ICUMS operations still manual after we lost about GH¢100 million,” Isaac Adongo quizzed?

Mr Adongo also claimed no entry has been processed at the Elubo border for one week adding, entries are not being made through the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) with declarants compelled to make payments against clearance, to be corrected later.

“Manual collusion with customs officers eminent as importers are unlikely to return to perfect transactions fully manual with arbitrary and colluded duty valuations.” he added.

Managers of Ghana’s port have since reverted to the manual clearing of goods following the challenges associated with the deployment of the UNIPASS system to replace existing GCNet and West Blue systems.

This follows the new port clearing system; UNIPASS which processes documents and payments through one window. It is a departure from the previous system in which ‘valuation and classification’ and ‘risk management and payment’ were handled by different entities.

The system, spearheaded by Ghana Link Services Ltd, in collaboration with Customs UNIPASS International Agency (CUPIA) of the Korean Customs Service, the designer of the system, replaces the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAARS) and the Ghana Customs Management System (GCMS) jointly operated by the Customs Division, the Ghana Community Network Services (GCNet) Ltd and West Blue Consulting.