Chief of Staff lauded for stopping public auctioning

The Bureau for Internal Affairs (BIA), an anti-corruption organisation has lauded Mr Prosperous Douglas Kweku Bani, Chief of Staff, for stopping an intended auctioning of vehicles and goods by Customs Division of Ghana Revenue Authority.

Mr Godfred Nkrumah, Coordinating Director of BIA told Ghana News Agency in Accra at the weekend that the move by the Chief of Staff had saved the country from losing huge amount of revenue.

He said under the guise of public auctioning a lot of artificially created revenue loopholes are brought on board to loot state property.

Mr Nkrumah claimed that one of the ill practices associated with the sales is that some importers who are not able to pay duties due to the state patronise public auctioning to clear their goods through the back door.

He said such anomalies are a huge fraud to the state.

BIA is of the view that there is a syndicate in charge of the process and acting without the transparency that should be associated with such public sales.

Mr Nkrumah said the syndicate at times does not offer products being auctioned to the highest bidder.

“Some state vehicles that are in good shape and should not be auctioned are sometimes abandoned in workshops to create an opportunity for people interested in them to purchase them under the guise of public sales.

“The intervention of the Chief of Staff is very commendable and BIA will urge him to streamline the whole process to plug the loopholes that enable people to feed fat on state property,” he said.

Mr Nkrumah suggested the need for government to institute a credible body or team to oversee such public sales in order for the country to get value for money.

BIA is an anti-corruption organisation and also serves as a centre for information gathering on public concerns with the aim of bridging the communication gap between the public and the authorities on issues negatively affecting the nation.

Source: GNA