By Laudia Sawer
Tema, May 22, GNA – The Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) has called on shipping lines and agents owing the authority, to clear their debts to enable it to discharge its duties efficiently.
Dr Kamal-Deen Ali, the Director-General of the GMA, who made the call when he visited the Tema office of the authority, said the inability of the agents to pay their debts on schedule was one of the challenges his outfit faces.
Dr Ali further stated that some of them default for a very long time but end up paying, while others default and at certain times even get to a level where they are either declared bankrupt and unable to recover or they simply just vanish and tracing them becomes a problem.
“It’s a major challenge for the authority because the authority is 100 per cent self-reliant, and we also have to help promote and build the maritime industry and having those defaulting and people refusing to pay affects our job,” he stressed.
He said they viewed them as important partners; therefore, the current arrangements, which gave them sufficient time to reconcile their books to receive and pay to the Ghana Maritime Authority, should be honoured.
The Director-General said they were tracing and giving the defaulters some time to pay back; otherwise, they would consider a certain level of review of the current arrangements.
“So, over the couple of months – three months maximum – we are assessing to see how they are meeting their part, because this arrangement was mutually agreed between us, so if they are not meeting their part of the bargain, we will have to reconsider the current arrangements”.
He said the GMA was very gracious in giving them 45 days to make their payments because they want to make sure that they also grow as an important part of the authority’s partners while limiting the impact on the Ghanaians.
Dr Ali explained that if they decide to carry out all their businesses on the ‘cash and carry’ basis, it had some implications, stressing that for that reason, they were asking them to honour their parts of the bargain and arrangements that they had with them.
He added that “We will not discuss the figures, but we do have some level of debts that we are fully in to recover now. We are trusting that those who are owing us will pay; otherwise, there is always a second level of processing some of them to court, and we currently have a number of cases in court that we are taking up because those monies are for the authority and the Ghanaian people that must be retrieved”.
Touching on the upcoming Day of the Seafarer, the GMA had put in place a team that was working for them to have a more comprehensive Seafarers Day and be able to reflect on the current conditions as well as respond to their need, he said.
GNA
Edited by Christabel Addo