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

The post Gov’t forced West Blue out of business – Murtala appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to him, 2016 was an election year hence the decline in imports which affected the revenue base at the Port.

[contextly_sidebar id=”CXpka3MOf5sompFeZ55Lxu5Iu17XiDIO”]”It is unfortunate the Vice President is trying to compare revenue from an election free year with that of an election year,” he said.

Mr. Awingobit, who was speaking at a GIFF press conference in Tema, said the Vice President’s calculation was wrong and does not represent the fact on the ground.

“What happens is that during the electioneering season, imports decline and businesses tend to be very slow so for the Vice President to say, the one-week existence of the paperless have actually increased the revenue at the Port is highly untrue.”

Mr. Awingobit noted that, “the Vice President should have also known that due to the migration from a paper regime to a paperless one, most clearing agents prior to the implementation of the new policy entered loads of declarations which are yet to be cleared from the Port which also accounted for the rise in revenue.”

“There are several declarations that are yet to be cleared from the system even though the duties have been paid. The containers are still at the Port uncleared despite having paid duty. Those are backlogs and government must be worried” Mr Asaaki stated.

He said between September 4 and6, importers who have paid monies to clear their consignment were yet to clear them.

“I urge the Vice President to direct his focus on how to make the paperless policy a robust one devoid of all the numerous challenges than churn out figers that does not represent the realities on the ground.”

He said it too early for governent to start praising the paperless policy because the bottlenecks have not yet been addressed.

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By: Elvis Washington/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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