The long, winding road to the paperless ports
After a successful pilot of the paperless initiative at the ports, the country has officially begun the full implementation of the initiative, starting with the clearance of imported goods.
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The process, which commenced yesterday, saw the existing manual processes of clearing cargo being automated as part of an over-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, in May 2017, announced a three-pronged policy of ensuring paperless processes, joint mandatory inspection on containers by all relevant agencies and the removal of customs barriers along transit corridors effective September 1, 2017 as part of reforms aimed to eliminate bureaucratic procedures in the trade supply chain.
Electronic information is being touted as a more reliable means of reducing costs and delays all within the trade supply chain.
The rapid developments in information and communications technology (ICT) are contributing to making trade more competitive and efficient.
However, the general lack of coordination among agencies, undervaluation of import duty and supposed collusion among importers and customs officials over the years were said to have significantly contributed to poor service delivery at the ports.
The lack of political will to ensure the implementation of key reforms that had beautifully existed on paper and left on shelves for decades, the inability of technical service providers to collaborate and exchange data on trade documents and ensure that end users of the electronic platforms deployed and performed transactions on a single interface also compounded the challenges.
National strategy
The paperless project initiative embarked on under previous regimes saw the birth of Ghana Community Network Services (GCNet) and subsequently the Ghana National Single Window (GNSW) project being implemented by West Blue Consulting (WBC).
These had, however, failed to achieve the necessary positive outcomes as importers and agents queued tirelessly at the customs documentation centre (popularly referred to as the Long Room) at the Tema
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Port with documents in hand to either negotiate for value reduction or obtain a customs endorsement to clear their cargos, a situation which went to suggest that the country had no clear national strategies for trade facilitation.
Many players have argued that sufficient political will ought to have be mustered in strengthening institutional arrangements for trade facilitation and ensuring that all relevant agencies, as well as the private sector worked more effectively together.
While system integration is key for a successful implementation of the policy, preparations so far, according to industry watchers, do not appear to provide the assurance of a successful execution of the project.
The posture of GCNet and West Blue previously suggested a turf war over a perceived job takeover, a situation many described as not being driven by a nationalist interest but of the parochial interest of the two organisations.
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Road map
The requirements of modern trade practice have thrown up difficulties associated with the trade documentation and goods clearing cycle.
Thus, with the Vice-President setting the tone and stressing the need for the attainment of a four-hour clearing of goods from the ports, a road map was outlined with various technical committees being put in place to ensure all relevant stakeholders harmonised their processes, and further get their information technology systems hooked onto a single platform, where end users could access information from the pre-arrival process through to the clearance of imports and clearing
That period, however, saw resistance from the major players such as the technical service providers, interest groups and freight forwarding associations, among others, as the processes brought about apprehension of job retention.
In the same vein, concerns have been raised about reward systems for compliance by traders for submitting electronic documents, considering the fact that they would bear the larger cost of such transactions.
Sensitisation
The transition to paperless trade is a long-term process that requires the strong involvement of all stakeholders.
For a major project in line with efficiency goals, adequate preparations could have been done so as to defuse the general misconception about the entire process.
The inadequate sensitisation and education on the implementation of the policy led to demonstrations by clearing agents who are key stakeholders in this arrangement, some of whom have called for the suspension of the project until issues of job retention were properly addressed by the government.
Practical demonstrations about the processes have also been minimal with the two providers only showing slide presentation to freight forwarders as against the agents being taken through the practicality of the processes in the wake of electronic payment platforms being introduced as added functions to the existing chain.
There is no doubt that bureaucratic processes and extortion as a result of face-face interaction between traders (importers & clearing and forwarding agents) are common features in port clearance processes and have consequences on business cost.
With the reforms taking shape and eliminating face-to-face contacts between importers, customs officials, regulatory officials and others, only time will tell whether these changes will yield the desired results or whether fatigue would set in if the motivations which come in processing of documentations by various frontline officials, who had been made to assume back room posts as a result of the automation processes, would devise new strategies by forming an alliance with importers and their agents. —GB
Writer’s email: [email protected]