A representative of a deputy director of the National Security apparatus at the Port of Tema, a female Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) officer and five Indians are among a number of persons arrested over their alleged involvement in an assortment of financial scandals.
According to a Deputy Information Minister, Murtala Mohammed, in an interview with DAILY GUIDE yesterday, the arrests were made over a two-day period and included two other CEPS officials, details of which were being withheld as investigations continued.
The latest arrest happened on Wednesday during an operation which saw more CEPS officers being taken in for questioning.
The deputy minister disclosed there was a video recording of the negative activities by some port officials.
These and others have helped the taskforce in their ongoing swoops.
The operation followed an earlier observation by President John Mahama over revenue loss to the state as a result of professional impropriety by some CEPS officials.
The swoops were a manifestation of the President making good his promise of tackling the shortcomings of the operations of CEPS officials at the Port of Tema.
It would be recalled that he earlier ordered a massive shake-up of the revenue collection agency including the removal of the CEPS Commissioner, Maj. Gen Carl Modey.
The swoops under review were undertaken by a recently established Presidential taskforce specifically to deal with the financial haemorrhage at the Port of Tema headed by the Chief of Staff, Prosper Kwaku Bani.
Investigation, according to the deputy information minister, has it that five trucks were found to be offloading goods at premises which were in total breach of standard practice.
This illegality was perpetrated in the presence of representatives of personnel from the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the National Security apparatus.
He added, however, that the deputy director of the National Security apparatus had been offered bail pending investigations.
Murtala Mohammed had briefed the media at the Flagstaff House on Wednesday regarding the mode of tackling revenue loss to the state when he said it would include arrests.
Large quantities of imported goods evade the tax net at the Port of Tema; a practice which is said to have gone on for some time now even as a plethora of state agencies operate at the facility.
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