The impounded goods
THE TEMA Regional Police Command
has initiated investigations to unravel the circumstances under which
substandard electrical goods loaded in three impounded containers found their way
into the Ghanaian market.
The probe follows an allegation
made against the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) by one James Emeka, owner of
T-Digital. In 2017, T-Digital &
Jordan Company Limited imported the goods but the company was denied the
opportunity to clear them from the Tema Port due to the fact that they were
declared substandard by the authority.
The goods, which were confiscated
and were in the possession of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue
Authority (GRA) awaiting destruction, found their way into a shop at Tema Community
9 three years on.
Police detectives last Saturday went
to the said shop, which was earlier locked up by the owner (who is currently at
large), to discover 286 boxes of cables and 11 coils of cables at Community 9.
Information gathered by DAILY GUIDE indicates that sometime in 2017, T-Digital & Jordan Company LTD based in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region imported three 20-footer containers of electrical cables from China at a cost of $325,000 to the Tema Port.
The items were first screened by the
GSA and certified that they could clear them and the owners went ahead to pay
GH¢132,000 as duty to customs. When they were ready to leave the port, the same
GSA officials came back to say the goods were substandard and were confiscated.
According to John Bosco, a brother
of the importer, the company asked the officials to allow it to send the goods
back to China but they refused.
He also claimed they never received
a refund of the duty paid from customs and as a result they started monitoring
the system to check whether the goods would land on the market.
He said last week, they had information
that a cable dealer at Community 9 received a container-load of electrical
cables but their private investigations showed that it was the same consignment
they brought in 2017, and the cables were being sold at a very cheap price.
He said their company’s name is embossed on the cables and they alerted the
police for action.
From Vincent Kubi, Tema