The brouhaha over the deployment of the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) has forced the authorities to allow the concurrent processing of manifests of imports and exports in the country with the Ghana Customs Management System (GCMS) until the end of next month. Unconfirmed reports also says the government has agreed to pay off GC-NET, has contract with the former until 2023.
The Chronicle sighted a letter to that effect, signed by the Acting Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Ammishadai Owusu-Amoah, which was distributed to all stakeholders and copied to Jubilee House in Accra.
Dated 27th April 2020, the letter states in part that effective 28th April 2020 and until 31st May, 2020, the following shall apply to all transactions in respect of import/export manifests can be processed through either the ICUMS or GCMS for the Tema Port, as well as all entry points.
It went on that for the avoidance of doubt, with effect from 1st June 2020, all new transactions, without exception, in respect of import and export, shall only be processed through the ICUMS.
It continued that all existing transactions, commencing prior to the 31st of May 2020, for which processing have not been completed in the GCMS (before or after payment of duty), shall be reprocessed through the ICUMS.
The Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, on the 22nd of April 2020, addressed a letter to the Commissioner General of the GRA, which states that further of the government’s policy to deploy an end-to-end customs management system, this letter is to inform you formally that the new system, ICUMS, is now ready to fully roll out.
It made reference to an earlier letter dated 28th February 2020, in which the Commissioner General was directed to begin a phased deployment of the new system built on the UNIPASS technology from 1st March 2020 at 49 entry points.
The implementation of the new system is to be deployed by a single vendor, Ghana Link Network Services Limited, is the government’s policy response to address the multiplicity of service providers with different contract terms and tenures within the Ghana Customs Management space, and the legal handicaps of many of these contracts, which pose significant threats to the Ghana Customs automation programme.
It went on that the deployment of ICUMS at all entry points take off at the midnight preceding Tuesday 28th of April 2020, from which date all customs processes should take place within the new system.
The Senior Minister’s letter further stated that it was critical that payments to the under-listed service providers, whose services are now fully covered under the Government of Ghana’s contract with Ghana Link Network Services Limited, to be discontinued accordingly, are, West Blue Ghana Limited, Ghana Community Network Services Limited, Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited, System Consults Limited, and Cargo Tracking Note Ghana Limited.
The five service providers above are required to submit all the sovereign data of Ghana in their custody by 28th April 2020 to the Office of the Senior Minister.
Sources at higher places intimated that the GC-NET has a contract with the Government of Ghana which expires in 2023. With the coming into effect of UNIPASS, the source continued that the state has agreed to pay the company for the rest of the period up to 2023, and it is unclear as to the quantum of the amount, but it is alleged to be a little over $100 million.
The post Gov’t agrees to pay off GC-NET? appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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