Founding President and CEO of policy think-tank IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has warned that the decision of the government to terminate the contracts of GCNet and WestBlue, operators of the Customs’ management systems, is ill-timed considering the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy.
In a petition to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo on Thursday, titled “Plugging huge revenue gaps occasioned by Covid-19: GCNET and West Blue remain your best port revenue assurers”, he called for the suspension of the ICUMS/UNIPASS system.
“Covid-19 has erased almost 6percent of the country’s expected end-year growth of 7.5% leaving in its trail huge gaps in our finances.
Indeed, we are in the worst of times, in choppy waters. Let us not rock the boat any further,” he said.
Mr. Cudjoe also demanded an independent review of the UNIPASS system as well as public sharing of revenue projections from the implementation of the system.
He added: “Temporarily suspend operations of UNI-PASS and allow GCNET and West Blue to operate for the remainder of the year in order to assure the nation of revenues, most likely GHS10bn given depressed trade activity due to Covid-19.”