I just returned from Ghana where I spent 2 weeks and much as I enjoyed my short stay over there a few scenarios sent waves of shocks into my spine and I still can't get them out of my mind.
I had an excess luggage (30kg) prior to my flight so I transported it via Air Cargo (Duesseldorf to Accra). At Duesseldorf it took me just 20 minutes to process all formalities and within 30 minutes I was on my way back to the office. The whole process costed me a hundred Euros. I went to the CEPS (Customs Excise and Prevention, Accra) the very next day upon my arrival in Accra at around 9am.
The first thing that greeted me were loads of clearance agents who are there to assist people clear their goods. I still haven't understood their relevance. First thing I did was to present my airway bill in one office just for them to check if my luggage was in place. That took an hour and fifteen minutes. I was presented with a document and directed to another office for further processing. This office was relatively small and crowded with 4 workstations. The lady in charge of the next process was literally sleeping (head on desk). Meanwhile a TV with one of the nigerian movies was running. I had to wake her up. As soon as the lady woke up the next thing she did was to turn to the TV for a while before even asking me what she could do for me. She turned almost every 10 seconds to watch TV while processing my documents. I spent another hour there and was again directed to another office for further processing. I had to wait another half an hour in a queue before being served. Again I was directed to "Sleeping Lady" for payments.
Now she wrote down a ridiculous bill to the tune of 898 000 Cedis. The bread down was as follows: Administrative Charges - 78 000 Processing fee - 150 000 Weight Charges - 240 000 Taxes - 179 600 Custom Charges - 250 400
This simply shocked me to bits! The interesting thing is that this amount was negotiable that in the end I had to pay 670 000 Cedis. From here I had to go to another office to get a confirmation for the delivery of my luggage. It was already past midday. This office was spacious and they had an even larger and better TV running. Here I was told they were on break and I would have to wait till 2pm. I was not going to accept that and I started arguing with the officer in charge. Now this man had the nerve to tell me he could do me a favour by asking one of the ladies to take care of me as soon as she gets back from break. Now I was wondering why I needed a favour to receive a service I had already paid for.
Shortly before 2pm this Lady gave me a confirmation and directed me to the main warehouse to wait for her there. I got into this main warehouse and saw all these CEPS officers sitting on their desks. Guess what? 4 huge TVs were running and the officers were busy watching TV. At this point, I had waited for over half an hour relentlessly for this Lady. Now I freaked and asked one of the officers why I had to wait so long. The man told me they had procedures and I only had to comply to their procedures. I had seen people sleep and watch TV during working hours and someone was telling me about procedures. It took a whole hour for this Lady to turn up and I finally got my luggage and left the premises of CEPS after 3pm with 10 different pages of clearing documents.
So it took me almost a whole day to clear one luggage, one bag with personal items weighing 30kgs. I keep on asking myself why the clearance was almost as expensive as the real transportation of the luggage. I keep on asking myself if it is allowed for government officials to be watching TV during working house. I keep on asking myself why the cost for clearance can be negotiated. I keep on asking myself why I need almost a whole day to clear one bag.
For me this is serious abuse of office not to talk about this sheer inefficiency which seems to be backed by the men at the top. A fish begins to stink from the HEAD!!!
