Osafo-Maafo hot again over UNIPASS deal

The inability of Senior Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo, to explain the bases on which he has written a letter that would disrupt revenue generation and trade facilitation at the ports has started creating some embarrassment to government.

Osafo-Maafo, on Wednesday February 26, signed a letter in which he ordered importers to start dealing with a new single window operator, UNIPASS from Sunday March 1 although the new company would be using a system which has not been tried and tested and this directive from the Senior Minister is creating chaos among relevant stakeholders in the ports revenue generation chain.

The Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF), for instance is one of the several relevant stakeholders that say they are not ready to plug in to the UNIPASS system Osafo-Maafo has instructed them to because doing so at this stage could most likely lead to disruptions in the revenue generation system and trade facilitation; the very success story this same government has worked hard to achieve.

GIFF President Edmund Akrong has expressed surprise at Osafo-Maafo’s letter and directive.

“If we do not do this right, there is going to be pure recipe for chaos, there will be a serious disruption. The government must withdraw the letter immediately”, Mr. Akrong noted. He continued: “No training or piloting has been done. We were told some piloting was done in Aflao but I can tell you that it did not happen and Takoradi the same thing. In Elubo, the last time they were there was in October 30th 2019 for a meeting.”

“What is broken that you want to fix? Have we complained about the system that we have? What is it that you are bringing that would assure me that what you are bringing is way better than what I have? What I see is that this would bring a disruption if they start it now and we are not ready’, the GIFF President added.

Misleading the president

Founding President and Chief Executive of IMANI, on Sunday described the Osafo-Marfo letter as outrageous and warned it could lead to major financial loss for the state:

“I have been reflecting over how some major decisions with outrageous financial implications have been made- I have now concluded that the most powerful advisor to our President, a man with whom he served under ex-President Kufuor, is the singular reason for some of these cantankerous decisions.

“The decision to replace unbroken ports valuation technologies, (cheaper and rewarding GCNet and West Blue, charging us 0.54% of FoB prices) with UNIPASS or its clone, (untested, pilot-tragedy prone and more expensive 0.75% of FoB) prices broke the camel's back for me.

“The contract itself is priced at $40m for ten years, yet contains clauses that lists atrocious payouts to UNIPASS or its clone should the contract be broken by government- from $93m in the first year to $12m in the tenth year. What is worse, judicial judgement debts running into hundreds of millions of dollars must be paid out to existing GCNet and West Blue.

“But that would not be the Senior Minister's own money. It would be your taxes. Classic case of the Tragedy of the Commons- what belongs to you, you tend to take greater care of; what belongs to others, must fall into disrepair- for no one cares. So, there you are, with a classic example of political rather than economic advise from the older wise”, Mr. Cudjoe noted on his Facebook wall.