Customs physical examination of goods irrelevant in this coronavirus era

Some few years back His excellency the Vice-president of the Republic of Ghana came up with strategic sweeping policies to regulate the maritime industry.

One specific policy that was envisaged to bring absolute transformation to Ghana’s global supply chain processes was to ensure that approximately 90% of all imports, having gone through the mandatory scanning process, could leave the ports without necessarily having to go through rigorous physical examination.

However, for quite some time now, the Vice-president’s directive could not virtually see the light of day due to certain unanticipated circumstances.

Now, in this era of COVID-19, as polities still continue to engage in supply chain activities, more specifically, in the import and export trade, personnel and the various representatives whose mandated tasks compel them to come into close contact with stowage are virtually put at extreme risk.

The practice in Ghana’s ports where containerized cargoes are mostly unstuffed for examination purposes in this precarious moments calls for instantaneous abatement.

Obviously, it may interest readers to know that the stuffing or loading of consignments meant for export, especially in the case of containerized freight are performed physically by humans. Once the fact remains that human labour becomes inevitable in this connection, then the probable effects are that secretion of profuse sweat coupled with associated sputtering and other natural human expulsion borne out of fatigue settling on these exports cannot be ruled out.

The question is among the labour force; how could a carrier of COVID-19 visibly be predicted? In such circumstances, the dangers are that, all personnel including officers of Customs whose mandated duty enables them to have close contact with these goods stood the risk of contracting and consequently infecting many others which could lead to ultimate death now that there is no known cure in our present dispensation.

In the light of above, it would be prudent if His excellency the Vice-president, Alhaji Muhamadu Bawumia and for that matter the government of Ghana, would without hesitation, halt this seemingly inevitable physical examination procedure which is so deep-rooted in the port clearance system.

The effectiveness of the already strategically installed SCANNERS could effectively deliver the needed service. We believe such stringent action could save our personnel but more specifically our hard working Customs officers from endangering their treasurable lives in this life-threatening moments.

JOE EFFAH-NKYI, (MILT) E-mail; unistates2000@yahoo.com