The Ghana Ports And Habours Authority (GPHA) will in October this year, launched the Port Business Integrity Project to minimize completely, incidents of financial impropriety emanating from bribery, extortion fraud and pilfering.
This Integrity Campaign is also to put the ports at a sustained manner so as to become the cleanest place of doing business in Ghana.
Speaking to the Director of Marketing and Public Relations of Tema Port, Mr Paul Asare Ansah in an exclusive interview, he indicated that the ports authority is considering ensuring that people do business at the actual cost other than paying bribes.
He also mentioned that when the Campaign is successfully rolled out, government will derive maximum taxation from the port operations without any leakages.
He told www.spyghana.com that the decision to embark on the Integrity Campaign was moved by several reports of extortions taking place at the ports, adding that, “however, the integrity of the port is not in tatters, so we will treat any matter that comes to us with importance. This is because we want to make the port a clean environment for business.”
Giving more information about the Port Business Integrity Project Ambassador, Mr Ansah said, one Mr John Mba, a casual driver at the port, has been chosen to lead the campaign as its ambassador.
According to him, Mr Mbah’s high sense of honesty has earned him that recognition since he returned 1,700 Euros he found at the Golden Jubilee Terminal while carting goods for a client, to the security.
According to Mr Ansah, , instead of taking away the money, Mr Mba handed over the money to the port security officials who then handed it over to management.
For more than a year and a half, and its accompanying announcements for the owner to show up, no individual or company had come to claim it.
The ports management then decided to give the 1,000 euros to Mr Mba and the remaining 700 euros to an orphanage of his choice.
“He chose the Remar Christian Centre, and the remaining 700 euros was given to the orphanage to cater for one year tuition fees for 34 needy children at the school,” Mr Ansah said.
Mr Ansah believes that the campaign address the issues of extortion and corruption within the ports and rid the ports of bad practices and further reduce corruption at the ports.
He expressed the hope that the example set by Mr Mba would be emulated by the other employees and clients in the day-to-day operations at the port.
