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A member of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Hon. Isaac Adongo has revealed that in the three days that the UNIPAS port management platform has failed to function, Ghana has lost close to Ghc100million in revenue.
The loss, he said, is due to the fact that stranded importers and exporters are unable to pay the necessary duties and taxes to clear their goods.
“From the 28th of April to 30th of April, Ghana did not receive a penny at the port for clearance of goods, so we lost close to Ghc100million in three to four days just to pave way for the transition of West Blue, GC Net, to UNIPAS. And that all the protocols for transition and the pilot would have cleared the way for us to have a seamless transition from an end to end digital system to an end to end digital system,” Adongo stated.
Importers and exporters at Ghana’s Ports have been stranded after the UNIPAS port management platform, which was installed in place of a time-tested system that GC Net had been running, failed miserably to work.
The Akufo-Addo Government had brutally hacked off GC Net’s contract, abrogating it and giving it to CUPIA, a wing of Korean Customs and their local partners, Ghana Link Network Services.
Following GC Net switching its platform for the UNIPAS system to start operations, the system has only failed constantly, leaving many importers and exporters stranded.
Incidentally, before the UNIPAS system would be installed, the Akufo-Addo Government had touted it as an ultra-modern technology that would seamlessly take over and improve the efficient running of a single-window platform for Ghana’s Ports.
However, as it would turned out, the platform has been described as a scam, and for weeks, the Ports have been a complete mess.
Hon. Adongo is asking the Government to restore GC Net’s contract so that Port activities can return to normal and the loss of money will stop.
It is alleged that the UNIPAS system was fronted by Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Marfo. Prior to deployment, the system had been tested twice and on both occasions, it had exhibited many hitches. However, Osafo Marfo had gone on to push for it to replace the GC Net system.