He said GIFF is as soon as practicable calling for a road map for version 1:1 of the paperless process set on course to re-align the processes to depict the true intent of His Excellency the Vice President’s white paper on the Paperless Policy.

Mr Ofosu Appiah said this at a Press Conference organised at the GIFF secretariat in Tema to debunk a newspaper reportage by the Daily Graphic alleging that freightforwarders were frustrating the paperless process at the Port.

He said the monday edition of the September 11th edition of the Daily Graphic newspaper reportage which suggested that frwight forwarders were frustrating the paperless process at the Port is untrue and has no merit.

He noted that freight forwarders since the inception of the paperless regime have been very cooperative and under no circumstance have they undermined the process in anyway.

“Apart from a few bottlenecks to be addressed, the paperless policy is a good one by all standards and it is so worrying and disappointing for a newspaper to carry on its front page that we freight forwarders, are frustrating the paperless process at the Port, which is indeed false,” he noted.

Mr Ofosu Appiah said the Daily Graphic reportage on Monday was quite unfortunate and had no merit whatsoever.

“We are committed to the success of the paperless project, we have issues however, real issues of which we had course to interact with the commissioner of Customs and we believe they would be addressed to the benefit of all,” he stressed.

He said GIFF is advocating for a call centre under the control of an Assistant Commissioner which can take issues from end to end and escalate them for solutions from appropriate quarters in real tomb as well as a commissioners order which have been awaiting must be composed and released to give clarity to the paperless process on the grounds as promised.

He added that there is the need for an ever present high level monitoring and reporting dashboard unit with the capacity of overseeing the end to end process and where it is stalling for quick redress.

Mr Ofosu Appiah however announce that the issues frustrating the smooth operation of the paperless system at the Port are the absence of effective call centre, responding to end to end issues, difficulties in transmission of CCVR’s from PAARS to GICCS.

Extreme delays at compliance; ranging from 48 hours to over 7 days and counting. Misalignment of the old and new process resulting in confused process by pass thereby leading to the virtual evaporation of declarations in the system as well as failure of GPHA booking and billing system.

These he said are the issues frustrating the new paperless policy and not freight forwarders.

“We are fully for the paperless policy since if it is fine tuned, it shall indeed be of good help to freight forwarders.”

Regarding the clearance of containers in four hours, Mr Ofosu Appiah said that could only happen after six months of fine tuning the newly introduced paperless policy.

Meanwhile the AssistantCommissioner of Customs in charge of Policy and Programmes, Richard Patrick Yawutse in an earlier interview with Citi news debunked allegations that some persons were sabotaging the policy.

He said the key issue affecting the process is miscommunication between parties and this is being addressed to ensure a smooth operation of the policy.

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By: Elvis Washington/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post We’re not undermining paperless process – Freight Forwarders appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to them, their earlier complaints of delay in the system was genuine, and not a ploy to sabotage the process.

“We clearly have challenges and to express these challenges that we have on the ground, I’m not sure it will be translated to mean not being comfortable with the system or trying to sabotage the system,” President of the Ghana Institute for Freight Forwarders, Kwabena Ofosu Appiah, said on Eyewitness News on Tuesday.

Mr. Appiah made the remark in response to some disparaging comments made against them by the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

[contextly_sidebar id=”3Zg67MrmZywiG1H9g0V0F1E1v47GaFQt”]Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia while speaking at the launch of the onboarding programme for National Service Personnel into the National Communications Authority on Tuesday , claimed that an initial assessment of the implementation of the paperless system had shown a revenue collection improvement of 56 percent.

According to him, revenue at the ports increased from GHc130 million in the first week of September 2016, to GHc213 million in the same period for 2017.

“The results are amazing. We just looked at data this morning – first week of collections under the paperless system in September this year compared to last year first week of collections in September 2016, and collections have gone up by 56 percent; 56 percent from around GHc130 million to GHc213 million in one week,” he added.

He also lambasted the freight forwarders for complaining over the few challenges they encountered trying to clear their good using the paperless system.

“On September 1, we launched the paperless [system], but of course not without attempts to actually derail the process, because it’s hurting a lot of people who were making free money and people who used to take two weeks to clear a container after one day of delay were protesting.  Are you protesting the system or something else?”

But President of the Freight Forwarders Institute said “I am very sure that when the lines are drawn there will be a very huge distinction between those so-called saboteurs and those who are expressing a certain anxiety or frustration as a result of the punks of implementation.”

“With regards to what the Vice President said, we were not even immediately looking at the statistics but giving what he has quoted, 56 percent jump in revenue we can immediately identify with that, but it doesn’t mean we do not have challenges with implementation on the ground,” he added.

Background

Government began the implementation of the paperless clearing system on September 1, 2017, to speed up the process of clearing goods from two weeks to four hours, and ensure order at the port, whilst blocking loopholes.

But the aim to which the system was established experienced some hitches following which hundreds of angry Freight Forwarders thronged the Longroom of the Tema Port to protest over the delays in the system at the beginning.

Paperless system backlog cleared – GRA

In a related development, the Commissioner for the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority  (GRA), Isaac Crentsil, explained that his outfit has rectified challenges that impeded the smooth take off of the paperless clearing system.

He added that the backlog with the compliance unit has also been cleared.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post We’re not sabotaging paperless system – Freight forwarders appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to him, such systems are the norm in advanced countries and were long overdue in Ghana.

“In all honesty, I think it is embarrassing that we are now talking about paperless system at the port. We have friends who are engaged in freight forwarding, they know that their counterparts in China and elsewhere have long been introduced to this. They are aware of how these thing works.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”239lrCgFxFKHriyHaal2Jd6j5Gmd3NMh”]“I’m sure when their own partners in China, Britain and so on, hear that they are here fighting over paperless system; they will be surprised because these are well known,” he added while speaking on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue on Saturday.

Government began the implementation of the paperless clearing system last week to reduce the time for clearing goods from two weeks to four hours, and ensure order at the port, whilst blocking loopholes.

But the aim to which the system was established experienced some hitches following which hundreds of angry Freight Forwarders thronged the Longroom of the Tema Port to protest over the delays in the system.

Lawyer Oppong on The Big Issue advised the freight forwarders to employ IT experts to help them better understand the process.

“Of course there are some who are not so much experienced in terms of technology but they must employ people who have the expertise in their offices so that they will also educate them or bring them to the standard,” he said.

He further called on government to also introduce cashless system at the ports to complement the paperless system.

“I think we should go further and do cashless. All these companies [importers] and freight forwarding companies must have bank accounts, there should be a system where their monies are loaded on their cards and linked to even the originating countries …to prevent tax avoidance and tax evasion,” he added.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Confusion over paperless system embarrassing – Yaw Oppong appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.