The Customs division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has intercepted a commercial truck transporting fish consignments destined for Burkina Faso for illegally offloading its content at a warehouse in Kumasi.
According to customs officials, the cargo truck did not possess the appropriate documentation required to discharge the fish shipment.
In an unexpected development, customs officials from the Ghana Revenue Authority seized the commercial vehicle transporting fish consignments destined for Burkina Faso after discovering its illicit offload at a warehouse in Kumasi.
During routine inspections, the customs agents discovered that the truck had been clandestinely transferred into a nearby warehouse against regulations.
Ashanti Regional Commander of Customs, Assistant Commissioner Vivian Glover, expressed concern over possible breaches of regulatory compliance.
”the intention of the declarant is that the goods are meant for Bukina Faso so they were using the transit regime. Our monitoring team from Accra alerted us that these goods have been released to Bukin Faso so we were monitoring it. We had our tracking device on it to help us monitor the movement of the consignment. The route was through Kumasi and we were monitoring but along the line, we realised that the truck was off-route, which means it was no more on the approved route”.
“we discharged our officers to the area that the device was prompting us to and when they got there, they saw that the people were discharging the goods into a warehouse”
She expressed concern over possible breaches of regulatory compliance.
“Our major concern I that if you abuse these rules, then its likely we will find restricted goods in the country. That is why when you say the goods are meant for transit, it should exit our boarders. They want to make more profit at the detriment of the state. They don’t want to pay what is due the state” she added.
The warehouse has been taken over by customs, with the truck conveying the consignment impounded pending investigations.
“ We have started our investigations. We are writing reports to headquarters and we will take it from there. But for now, we have the goods locked up. Our officers locked the warehouse with a revenue lock, which means Customs have taken control over the consignment and the truck conveying the consignment is also to be detained so the truck has been taken to our yard in Aboabo.”