Nineteen officials of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) are being investigated for alleged extortion, fraud, smuggling and abuse of office. The officials are also being investigated for their alleged involvement in freight forwarding, collection of monies as duty without issuing receipts, illegal detention of vehicles and harassment of clients. The investigations, being undertaken by the Internal Affairs/Intelligence Unit of the service, followed petitions submitted to the unit since 2009 by CEPS officials, who report their colleagues, informants and individuals, as well as clients of CEPS such as the Agbogbloshie Fadama Onion Sellers, Ghana National Livestock Breeders and the Ghana Traders Association. Already, investigations into 23 cases reported against CEPS officials have been concluded and appropriate sanctions instituted against the affected personnel. The Internal Affairs/Intelligence Unit was established by CEPS with the assistance of the United States Customs and Border Protection Agency (USCBP) in 2009 to fight corruption, maintain integrity and minimise the risk of revenue leakage and security breaches in the service. The Commissioner of CEPS, Mr E. Kumah Lanyon, told the Daily Graphic that in an environment of perceived or real corruption, the establishment of the unit was essential to instilling discipline and ensuring integrity. He said the good thing so far was the consciousness the Unit had created among staff of CEPS that "somebody is watching and, therefore, has to be careful". "I can tell you that the awareness alone it had created is significant, as it has brought sanity into the conduct of officers," he said. Mr Lanyon said majority of the cases reported had been dealt with, with some personnel facing various forms of punishment. He said there had been two or three dismissals but majority of those found guilty had received the appropriate sanctions as enshrined in the code of conduct of CEPS, including suspensions, warning or refund of money. Mr Lanyon said the management of CEPS added intelligence functions to the unit so that the service could deal with any emerging issues to prevent them from escalating. He said, for instance, that the intelligence unit could pick up signals of some officers trying to form a syndicate to cheat and, therefore, alert management to take steps to deal with it before the syndicate succeeded. "This is to say that the unit must always be ahead of the game and advise management appropriately," he said. Mr Lanyon said the team at the Internal Affairs/Intelligence Unit had so far not disappointed the management and the staff as even the witnesses or suspects had often applauded them for the impartial manner investigations or complaints were handled. Source: Daily Graphic