Govt should monitor foreign exchange generated in Ghana

Ghana stands to lose substantial foreign exchange charged by some local industries if the government did not put in proper mechanisms to monitor their payments.

Investigations conducted by the Ghana News Agency has revealed that some companies that render service to firms and are paid in foreign exchange, direct such payments to be made into their foreign accounts.

Thus foreign exchange that should have been deposited into a Ghanaian bank to increase the country's foreign exchange receipts does not come.

The investigations showed that the management of a divested company directed its foreign client for whom it had provided services in Ghana, to send the initial deposit into its accounts in a bank in the United States.

The local agent of the foreign company (the client), who is a Ghanaian, had to act quickly to stop this bad practice, by directing his Principals to send the commitment deposit in dollars to Ghana.

The Agent, who wants to remain anonymous, said all these happen because the Ministry of Trade and Industry has no monitoring system to check such lapses in some of the companies.

In an interview, Mr Boniface Sidique, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, said to check some of these lapses in the industrial sector, Personnel of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) were attached to those industries that produce for local consumption or for export, to check various revenue receipts that should be paid into government accounts.

However, he said, with regard to the issue of industries that provide services and that undertake foreign contracts, "we are studying the whole system so that we can check such foreign exchange drain".