Kwabena Ahenkorah, an employee of Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), on Monday told the committee probing operational malpractices at the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) that 109 containers got lost at the Tema Port after November 2005. Testifying at the Justice Glenn Baddoo Committee sitting in Accra, Mr Ahenkorah implored the Committee to invite some officials working with the CEPS’ auction team to explain the whereabouts of the containers. Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, in July inaugurated the four-member committee with a month’s deadline to investigate allegations of operational malpractices at CEPS, to establish administrative actions against culpable personnel and identify management weaknesses in dealing expeditiously with disciplinary matters. It will also review the systems, procedures, processes, rules and regulations of CEPS in relation to its auction procedures and examine the role of clearing agents, auctioneers and other related matters and recommend specific actions or alternatives for disposing of seized goods. Mr. Ahenkorah entreated the Committee to invite Ms. Millicent Akpo-Teye, Head of the Auction Teams and two others, Mr. Adu Poku and Major Okine to explain the whereabouts of those containers. He explained that he performed special duties at GCAA and was directed by the then Minister of Finance and Economic Planning to monitor the auction of some containers at the Tema port. Mr. Ahenkorah said 126 containers were sold, but as the exercise progressed, the Minister ordered that some containers stocked with books, generators, Jacuzzi, split air-conditioners, electrical parts and iron rods should not be auctioned, but the contents should be used for government projects in the education and health sectors, offices and other projects, but the containers went missing. He said that when he and Mr. Andrew Quaynor and Prince Charles Annan who worked with him, asked questions, they were arrested and detained for eight hours by the police on the orders of the Auction team on allegation that they were unnecessarily interfering with their work. Another witness, Mr. Rodrick Daddey-Adjei, a former Head of Tema Port Office of Food and Drugs Board (FDB), suggested that FDB should be allowed to participate in the quality assessment of drugs in the containers that were to be auctioned. He explained that some of the medical items and food supplements auctioned were later found to have expired and were seized by FBD post-market surveillance team last April. Mr Isaac Owusu-Yankah, a businessman, who won the bid for the container with the drugs during the auction, is claiming compensation from CEPS for allegedly selling expired drugs to him. Source: The Ghanaian Times