Global Integrity 2008 Notebook on Smuggling

Badiako Asare (not his real name) is one of many rice importers in Ghana with an unwavering drive toward success — by means fair or foul. Opportunity knocked five years ago when he met with officials of the Ghana Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) to concoct a scheme that involved duping the state.

The scheme was simple: he would pay off the CEPS officials stationed at Kofibadukrom, a border town in western Ghana. The officials would permit him to smuggle in rice from neighboring Cote d’Ivoire. He would evade taxes, thereby increasing his profit margin.

“I wish there was a level playing field for all importers, but if I don’t smuggle, somebody else would do it anyway. So tell me: Why I should miss the opportunity to get more money when even state institutions themselves aid us in making these corrupt deals?” he said, as he sipped a cup of tea in his office.

Asare had arrived at midnight the night before we spoke with a bus full of smuggled rice. “I came in the company of over 13 smugglers last night from Abidjan through the Anyamaah barrier to our secret routes that lead us to Kofibadukrom. Overall, over 10,000 bags of rice entered into Ghana illegally just last night alone.” This crime, he added, is perpetrated against the state every day.

According to Asare, the first and most crucial step in the smuggling process is paying an agent to introduce the importer to the CEPS boss. Once the agent clears the way, the two set up an appointment to negotiate the bribe. “Also, before we meet, there’s a good old tradition of giving the CEPS boss one sack of rice to appease him and help soften his negotiating stand.”

Asare himself negotiated with the CEPS boss over the amount of rice they would allow him to bring in and what the price would be. At the conclusion, Asare paid the CEPS boss 50 cedis (US$40). The CEPS accountant collected the money, but did not issue any receipt as is usually done with legitimate imports.

“He just told me to go with my truckload of rice,” Asare said with a broad smile, “No paying of duties, not even Value Added Tax (VAT)! I smiled, thanked him and shook his hand for a job well done. That 50 cedis (US$40) was not even close to the usual price for a bag of rice.”

Once the deal was done, they offloaded the rice from the Ivorian trucks that brought them to the border into waiting Ghanaian trucks and headed toward the city. Before reaching his destination, Berekum, a nearby town in the region, Asare had to cross three more border posts that were manned by CEPS officials. Each of these took an additional 15 cedis (US$15) from him. In addition, three police barriers also took another 10 cedis (US$10) each.

Had he taken the legal route through the Tema or Takoradi main harbors, Asare could have paid up to 2,500 cedis (US$2,016). By taking the smuggling route, he came out way ahead. When he reached his destination, customers were already waiting, knowing that Asare’s smuggled rice would be cheaper than the rice available on the ordinary legal market.

I spoke with one of the many young boys who live in groups in Kofibadukrom, eking out a living by carting smuggled goods from Ivorian trucks into Ghanaian trucks. He confirmed that many trucks loaded with smuggled rice arrive every day from Cote d’Ivoire.

“We get 10 to 15 trucks each day in this border town. Each one carries over 700 bags of rice. The duties are usually not paid here and, when paid at all, they are under-declared. If you are not a known agent, the CEPS officials will not deal with you at all,” Kwame Ohum said at the Kofibadukrom lorry station.

Meanwhile, main importers who use the legal routes and pay the appropriate duties, including the government-approved VAT, are suffering a decline in sales because of the activities of Asare and several others who are able sell their smuggled rice cheaper on the market. Despite numerous complaints to CEPS management and pleas for stronger border security, officials often deny that anything is wrong and say that there is no evidence of such corrupt activities. They often challenge the complainants to bring evidence.

And there is evidence. Some reports allege that investigative journalists have captured smuggling activities with hidden cameras.

“This activity has been happening for years now, but because the CEPS has often denied its existence, we have used hidden cameras to capture some of these corrupt CEPS officials in the act of taking bribes,” said Mary Fianko Akuffo, a reporter for The Crusading GUIDE, an Accra-based independent newspaper, who showed me portions of the video: “Naming and shaming is the only way to fight corrupt officials in this country,” she told me.

Pervasive Corruption

But smuggling may be only a part of the widespread corruption that bedevils Ghana and its 22 million people. Consider the following incident:

One day in January 2008, a bus driver was taking passengers on his route to a suburb of Accra. He pulled over into what he thought was a designated parking zone, marked by a barely readable sign hanging from a dusty, corrugated sheet. Many years of rain, fog and scorching sun had worn the lettering away.

Unfortunately, the sign said “No Parking Zone.” A police constable was secretly (and conveniently) watching from behind some trees, 50 meters away. Seconds after the bus drifted into this trap, the constable enthusiastically jumped out with a huge smile, shouting, “You are under arrest!”

The bus driver was ordered back to police headquarters. There, the constable threatened the driver with court action unless he paid a bribe of 20 cedis (US$16) for the return of his bus keys. The driver knew that if he didn’t pay up, the constable would take him to court resulting in an even higher fine. The driver made a counteroffer of 15 cedis (US$12). Although the constable initially refused, the driver was persistent and after more haggling, the constable accepted the poor driver’s money and released him.

The media report that, since the government encouraged the motor court system to impose higher fines and stiffer punishments on bad drivers, officers within the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana police have made, and are still making, a lot of illegal money by forcing drivers — guilty and innocent — to pay bribes.

This happens despite Ghana’s many laws against corruption. Kojo Asante, of the Center for Democratic Development (CDD), said, in spite of the successful passing of anti-corruption laws, there is still a dearth of strong political will to fight corruption. He reiterated that public officials must declare their assets publicly, but added that there must also be strict conflict-of-interest compliance rules in place so that officials’ public and private interests can be kept separate.

The Political Scene

About 12 million Ghanaians are expected to vote in another historic election on Sunday, December 7, 2008, to elect a president from a field of eight contestants. In addition, they will elect 230 lawmakers out of a field of 1,060 parliamentary candidates in about 22,000 polling stations across the country.

The December 2000 elections ushered in the first democratic presidential change of power in Ghana’s history when John A. Kufuor of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) defeated National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate John Atta Mills. The 2008 election was only the second time in Ghana’s 51-year history that a democratically elected president peacefully handed over power to a successor.

In 2008, major political parties held primaries. There were accusations and counter-accusations of bribery and corruption from both the incumbent and opposition parties. Amin Damba said he was given a t-shirt, 20 cedis (US$16) and a small sack of rice by a parliamentarian from the incumbent government who was campaigning for his party’s primaries. Media reports have also mentioned similar incidents of bribery, which were blamed on the opposition party.

Mr. Vitus Azeem, executive secretary of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the local chapter of Transparency International, alleged that during voter registration, some political parties were bussing in potential voters from neighboring countries and even enticing minors to register to vote as adults. “In many cases, these minors were allegedly allowed to register with impunity while other genuine citizens with names that looked unfamiliar in certain areas were prevented from registering,” he said.

Possible Answers

Civil society groups in Ghana have condemned such practices, saying that they are not good for the health of Ghana’s fledging democracy. Quoting a parliamentary transcript from January 2000, Suyini Damba, a youth activist, said that past NDC governments had given up on the fight against corruption. He pointed out that the president at that time told Parliament that “the government on its part has extended an invitation to the World Bank to conduct a diagnostic study on corruption in Ghana and how it can be mitigated if not eradicated.” Damba added that, following the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law, the present NPP has promoted transparency and the freedom to write about official actions.

In addition, the enhancement of the Procurement Act to check abuse in public procurement has helped. He added that the Financial Administration Act and Internal Audit Act have also helped in the promotion of probity and the end of payroll abuse. Anti-corruption agencies like the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the police, and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) have received considerable support from the incumbent government.

By Anas Aremeyaw Anas

Return to Reporter’s Notebook

Peer Reviewer 1:
The issue of corruption is worsened by the lack of political will. When outgoing President John Agyekum Kufuor openly declared that corruption was as old as Adam, and so by implication alluded that it could not expected to be eradicated by his government, many were those who expressed utter disappointment at that statement. Until there is political will to fish out corrupt officials and punish them the country will continue to sink.

As for the police force, it is public knowledge that they even pay their bosses to allow them to check road traffic offenses because that is where their bread is buttered. I personally witnessed many occasions where the police extorted money from drivers. On one occasion I called an office colleague and we both confronted a policeman who was harassing a driver for money. We questioned which unit he was coming from while I quickly got his name from his name tag. I called him by name and told him I was crosschecking with his unit if he had been authorized to carry out traffic checks. It was when he realized that I was a journalist that he gave up and walked away.

Corruption has become so endemic that once you raise questions you are regarded as “mentally unstable.” It is as though you are a stranger in your own land who has completely lost touch with reality and your sense of appreciation of the norm.

Peer Reviewer 2:
The report is accurate and it captures issues that have been in the public domain for a long time.

Local rice producers have openly complained about rice imports, whilst the big time importers have complained about the activities of smugglers.

The names of towns are accurate. I have heard of Kofibadukrom. The only problem is that these areas are in Brong Ahafo Region, which lies on the Western Border, and are normally not described as towns in the Western Region.

There can be no argument on the fairness of the article, as the reporter personally talked to the people involved. The issues presented are relevant, especially the smuggling, the related revenue loss to the state, and the corrupt practices within CEPS and the Police.

Peer Reviewer 3:
The reporter captured the scope of corruption within the citizenry very well and also mirrored the abatement of the public service officials in these despondent acts of corruption, which continue to retard economic progress and plunder the majority of the citizens in poverty.

However, in my opinion, the question of the country’s ability to destroy the root cause of corruption has not been dealt with well in the write-up. The author could have devoted a bit more space to the lack of political will and executives’ indulgence in the act of corruption as evident over these years. In diagnosing the lack of political commitment to the anti-corruption fight, it would become more apparent that breaking the law and order is the conduit of importers, CEPS officials, and the police.

Note should be also made that at the heart of these developments lies cronyism, which kills the political will of the government. The reporter should have also spotted the fact that over the year in review a larger section of the media neglected their ‘watch-dog’ role, which also did not help. Moreover, the report contradicts the concession by anti-corruption agencies, such as the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the police, and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), that support from the out-government has been inconsiderable.

Peer Reviewer 4:
Accuracy The Reporter’s Notebook accurately captures aspects of corrupt practices in Ghana and provides good examples to show how pervasive this phenomenon really is. The reporter correctly mentions the perceived corruption in the political arena and alludes to some solutions that have been put in place to address the situation.

Fairness Bribery is just one corrupt practice. I believe that the Notebook should provide a fairer representation of the various forms of corruption: systemic corruption, institutionalized corruption, pervasive corruption, “the curse of giving and taking,” overwhelming free rider mentality, etc. Relevance The analysis of the Ghanaian political scene provided some accurate aspects, but in other ways it seemed to exhibit an inclination towards unfairly favoring the immediate past government of the NPP, whose term in office ended on Jan. 7, 2008. Given that the Reporters Notebook was researched early this year, I have made attempts to update and complete the events of the political calendar.

Comments and Notes The whole issue of corruption seems to be an “obvious good” in the psyche of many Ghanaians, once it does not hurt them directly. I intend to liken Ghana’s corruption to a game of jeopardy, where the winner takes all. Consider the following situations.

Ghana has become a country where a customer or a client will not be refunded if he/she mistakenly overpaid for a service. That money is considered normal and good omen for the beneficiary. For instance, if someone pays to see a physician under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS,) which is supposedly free, there is no remedy for a refund.

Many tourists, including myself, have accidentally paid 25 to 50 cedis (US$18-36) instead of 2.5 and 5 cedis (US$1.8-3.6) to taxi drivers from say Kpehe (Caprice) to Kaneshie and Malam respectively. These are all suburbs of Accra, but these taxi drivers could not honorably refund the passenger for the overpayment of the fare but happily and patiently drove away with the whole sum, possibly thinking it was a gift from God and perhaps a lucky day.

Then there is also the recent case of government officials of the NPP writing off used government designated vehicles at will, to themselves, after leaving office, because they believe they deserve to take them.

Corrections Western Region (NOT western region) Paragraph 2 line 2 “I wish (inverted commas begin), Paragraph 3 line 1 routes that led us to (NOT lead us to) Paragraph 4 line 3

Page 4 Political scene

Paragraph 1 lines 2 & 3 December 7, 2008 and December 28, 2008 …….. contestants, and the subsequent runoff respectively. (include the underlined)

In addition, they elected 229 out of 230 lawmakers with Akwatia outstanding. They were drawn out of a field of 1,060 parliamentary candidates …..

Paragraph 2 ….candidate John Atta Mills after a runoff elections.

Paragraph 3 should begin; The 2008 election was ……….. president peacefully handed over power to a successor on Jan. 7, 2008. In 2008, the major political parties held primaries to elect their parliamentary candidates.

Paragraph 4, should begin as such; The opposition NDC was the first party to have brought to the notice of the Electoral Commission (EC) the issue of over bloating the electoral register by some 116 percent in parts of the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The discovery was possible after it received an official CD-Rom from the EC. This prompted the EC to appeal to the citizenry and civil society organizations to assist in cleaning-up the electoral register (roll) prior to the 2008 elections. This was how the Commissioner put it, “the EC cannot do it alone.” Mr Vitus Azeem, executive ……………… from registering,” he said.

Paragraph 5 Possible answers

Civil society groups ……………………against corruption. …………..activist, said the NDC government had given up on corruption. But he also pointed out that the …..

Paragraph 6 Damba added that, following ……. the NPP has promoted transparency ………….. to write about official actions. In addition, the enhancement of the Procurement Act ……….and the end of payroll abuse.

Paragraph 7 On the other hand, anti-corruption agencies like CHRAJ …………SFO …….from the incumbent NDC government at the time. (include the underlined)

Peer Reviewer 5:
First, Kofibadukrom and Berekum are towns in the Brong Ahafo Region (an administrative region in Ghana, similar to a province). There is an administrative region known as the Western Region. Geographically, the two towns are in the western half of the country. If there is a way to remove the word ‘region’ from the report, it will help avoid confusion.

Second, cedis and not cedi is the correct currency form in plural.

Third, the elections have already taken place and there is a new president. Consequently, the information needs to be updated.

Everything else is fine.