A number of Ghanaian importers have made serious allegations of extortion against some officials of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and police personnel operating at the various borders and barriers. The importers made the allegations at a public forum organised by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning in Accra. They alleged that officials of CEPS usually charged them various sums of money at the different points where they cleared their goods, without issuing the corresponding receipts, while the police demanded bribes. In the presence of the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, one of the importers (name withheld), who said she plied along the Ghana, Nigeria and Togo routes narrated the difficulty she and her colleagues went through before they, were allowed to bring home their good. Other officials at the forum were the Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Nana Juaben-Siriboe Boaten; the Director of Budget, Mr. Kwabena Adjei Mensah, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Revenue Agencies Governing Board (RAGB), Mr Harry Owusu. Others were top officials of CEPS, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Value Added Tax (VAT) Service, the Venture Capital Fund, the National Lotteries Authority, the Controller and Accountant-General's Department (CAGD) and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSN1T) Among the participants at the forum were members of the Ghana Union Traders Association (GUTA), the Positive Traders Association of Ghana, Consumers' Advocncy Groups, importers, students, Journalists, some public servants within the ministries area and the general public. It was part of the financial literacy programme contained in the 2008 budget statement, with the objective of offering the public the opportunity to learn about the state of the Ghanaian economy, offer suggestions and also talk about the challenges facing them in their day-to-day economic activities. When the floor was opened for questions, complaints and suggestions, the participant were told tales of how some CEPS officials demanded duties without any proper valuation of goods and also how policemen took bribes from traders at all the nine barriers erected between Aflao and the Tema Motorway Roundabout. They also touched on the requirements one had to meet before getting access to loans from the banks, high interest rates the attitude of the police towards drivers, conditions at the Tema Station, the lack of social amenities at the Hawkers Market, among others. Responding to the allegations, an Assistant Commissioner of CEPS in charge of Research and Monitoring, Mr. S. A. Yankyera, said, while not attempting to defend the staff of the service, it was mostly traders who wanted to cheat the system who usually found problems with CEPS officials. He explained that the officials required the traders to pay the right amount of duty if the realized that the goods had been underdeclared. According to Mr. Yankyera, another group of traders who tried to under-declare the cost of their goods so that they could pay les tax and those who would want to be given preferential treatment also paid bribes to some CEPS officials. He advised the traders to take note of any official who abused his office and report him or her to the authorities adding that there was the need for the traders to do the right thing to avoid being taken advantage of. He pointed out that a lot of measures had been put in place at the border posts to check any official who might want to engage in any criminal activities and urged the traders to write down the names of any officer who would want to cheat and report them. Reacting to the allegations in an interview Mr. Baah-Wiredu said. "They are a serious indictment on all of us” and challenged the revenue collecting agencies to rise above reproach. In his opening address, Mr Baah-Wiredu said it was important that the public was involved in discussing the economy, since some individuals, although they were not necessarily professionals, were good at offering important suggestion which, if taken into consideration, could be of immense help to the development of the country. He said Ghanaians were very interested in issues of the economy adding that apart from football, the economic sector was one area where almost every Ghanaian freely commented on. Mr Baah-Wiredu said the government appreciated the role each Ghanaian had to play in the sustenance of the national economy, hence the decision to provide such a forum to enable the public to bring out idea and suggestions. Source: Daily Graphic