Gov’t hot over UNIPASS/ICUMS troubles at the ports

The never ending challenges of the Ghana Link/UNIPASS-ICUMS at the ports has started affecting other sectors of the economy with the Chamber of Pharmacy Ghana and Ghana Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association being the latest to add their voice on calls on the Nana Addo-led government to intervene and restore the ports to normalcy because their COVID-19 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Vitamin C and other drugs are all locked up due to the new system.

It has become a pathetic situation which is getting worse by the day with no clear solution anywhere in sight despite the several almost daily meetings the Ghana Link/UNIPASS team and some Senior Custom officials have at the Presidency, pretending to resolve the issues.

According to the pharmaceutical companies, their drugs could expire at the ports before clearance is this Ghana Link/UNIPASS-ICUMS is allowed to continue with their incompetence in trade facilitation.

Mr. Anthony Ameka, Chief Executive of the Chamber of Pharmacy, Ghana has explained the frustration of the Chamber’s members: “the cumbersome processes under the new system operated by UNIPASS has proven very costly for our members in the terms of time and actual value of service at the ports.

He continued: “besides, our members are also faced with the risk of losing some imports to expiration altogether, if the products are not cleared in good time.

“It is our fear that some of the pharmaceutical raw materials could reach their expiry dates before they are cleared from the ports if the snail pace manual process is not resolved quickly”

Meanwhile government has apparently decided to take a defensive position rather than objectively listen to and address the complaints of continuous challenges stakeholders are encountering over the newly introduced Ghana Link/UNIPASS-ICUMS at the ports and its resultant difficulties.

It is heartless and economically suicidal for government to continue to ignore as essential drugs meant for the treatement of COVID-19 patients get delayed at the ports because the new system is simply not living up to expectation.

Making industry players, importers, pharmaceutical drugs manufactures and members of the Ghana Union of Traders' Associations (GUTA), the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF), the Ship Owners and Agents Association, and several other business related bodies all suffer simply because an effective system has been replaced with a defective one, is certainly not making sense to anyone except the persons behind the new defective system.

The larger interest of the state and public is clearly been sacrificed for the interest of a few and it is so politically orchestrated to an extent that along the corridors of power, there are whispers and grumblings that cannot be uttered out boldly.