The Ghana Community Service Network Limited (GCNet), the information technology firm that transformed port clearing in the country about 16 years ago, will shut down operations on May 15, this year.
The shutdown, which also goes for the recent entrant, West Blue Consulting, follows the full rollout of a new customs clearing system, Uni-Pass, which according to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), would centralise the processing and handling of all import and export documentations, a system known as a single window clearing system.
Uni-Pass, scheduled to start operations at the Tema Port today, is expected to replace the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAARS), which was being performed by West Blue, and the Ghana Customs Management System (GCMS), jointly operated by the Customs Division of the GRA and GCNet.
The new system, another public-private partnership between the government and the Ghana Link Network Services, which has partnered with the Customs Uni-Pass International Agency (CUPIA) of Korea, the GRA said, would provide an unimpeded international commerce through the country’s ports.
Uni-Pass will operate the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) which is expected to process an average of 2,000 import declarations daily from the premises of the Ministry of Finance where the infrastructure has been installed according to reports.
The Commissioner General in a letter dated, April 24, 2020 and addressed to GCNet, West Blue and Magnate Technology Solutions, copies of which were meant for the Ministers of Trade, Finance, Communications, Transport and other relevant stakeholders, said transitional measures had been put in place to ensure that import declarations for which payment had been made but not been cleared before April 28 would continue to be processed in the GCNet system.
Similarly, the letter suggested that existing ex-warehousing, freezones and other suspense regimes declaration would also be made to continue until May 15, 2020.
This, thus, suggests that classification and valuation stages in the import clearance process will be undertaken using the new ICUMS (Uni-Pass).
Mr Owusu-Amoah, however, was unavailable to answer further queries on the apprehension about the challenges the system might pose if a coordinated pilot test was not carried out.
Meanwhile,GIFF and other freight forwarding associations, in a meeting with the operators of the new system on Monday, April 20, 2020, called for a pilot roll-out before an eventual roll-out of the ICUMS at a later date.
The Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association, Mr Sampson Asaki Awingobit, for his part, is advocating for the government to operate the new system alongside the existing ones to help the new provider to collate adequate data and also correct all the teething problems before allowing the Uni-Pass, a complete takeover of processes.
Credit: graphiconline
