He said the government must provide important details about the new company that will be taking over West Blue’s operations.

A statement from the management of West Blue on Wednesday sighted by citifmonline.com, said an agreement has been entered by the two companies to that effect.

“Customs World, a subsidiary of Ports Customs and Free Zones Corporation (PCFC) Dubai, has signed an agreement to take over West Blue Ghana Limited, the company engaged for the provision of the National Single Window and Risk Management System in Ghana. This agreement formalizes the establishment of ‘Ports & Customs World Ghana Limited,’” the statement said.

“What kind of contractual arrangements is government going to enter with the new company that is taking over from West Blue, and how long is the contract going to last? Is the new company going to continue where West Blue stopped, and how much will it cost?”

“There are a lot of companies that are crying in silence because they entered into contractual arrangements with the previous government. There are genuine questions that need to be asked because it involves money,” he added.

But according to Murtala Mohammed, West Blue’s decision to close operations in Ghana was not voluntary, but were forced to do so by the government.

“I am not surprised at all. Some of us saw it coming. That company went through a lot of frustration when the NPP came to power…I am aware that they went through a lot of frustration. For the purposes of their business interests, they may not want to admit but they were frustrated and a strangely another company has been contracted,” Murtala told Richard Sky on Eyewitness News.

West Blue Consulting, an IT firm engaged by the John Mahama government to provide a National Single Window and Risk Management System in Ghana, had been operating in the country since 2015.

The companies engagement by the former government was met with stiff opposition from members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

There were recent concerns about whether the country was operating a single window or a double window following complaints of a duplication of duty by West Blue Consulting and the Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNet) at the ports.

The NPP government’s decision to operate a paperless system at the ports rekindled debates on the operations of GCNet and West Blue.

Details of West Blue’s takeover by Customs World, are yet to be made public.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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He has also called on all stakeholders and citizens to ensure that the migration to a paperless transaction system at the ports become reality.

According to him, a paperless clearing of goods and processing of documents at the Sekondi-Takoradi ports will help eliminate bureaucracy and fraud.

He said a paperless system will also reduce the incident of time wasting during clearance of goods from the country’s ports.

He made the comments on Monday during a media interaction aimed at informing journalists about the intended paperless migration program on September 1.

Emmanuel Kofi Nti said Ghana will enhance its image in the sight of the global community if it successfully introduces the paperless system.

Once it kicks off, the various trade facilitation institutions at the ports will be expected to operate from one unit while documents pertaining to the clearance of goods or exports at the Tema and Takoradi ports will no longer be done through paper.

Although a World Trade Organisation (WTO) requirement, Ghana has lagged behind in ensuring that electronic platforms replace paper at the ports.

In 2012, an attempt to go paperless was stalled as some of the stakeholders in the value chain were found to be unprepared.

He commended the Ghana Community Network Services (GCNet) and West Blue “for working tirelessly” to ensure that the country was now in a position to roll out the project.

He said the authority and its stakeholders also had the necessary political will as the government was solidly behind them.

“We in Ghana have had attitudes,” he said, referring to the resistance that normally greets change.

Although most people hardly initiate change, he said they are always quick “to pull things down” when they start and thus called for such habits to be stopped.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

with additional resources from Graphic Online.

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