By Laudia Anyorkor Nunoo
Tema, Dec. 12, GNA – The Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has underscored the critical role of intelligence, collaboration, and technology in the Division’s enforcement operations.
Mr Eric Kweku Bonney, Assistant Commissioner and Head of Preventive at the Customs Division of the GRA, together with Mr Jerry Brookman Mensah, Chief Revenue Officer and Officer in Charge of Special Operations, said this at a media forum organised by the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA).
Mr Mensah said the preventive arm of the Customs Division heavily relied on intelligence, noting that without it, the Division could not operate effectively.
He explained that officers conducted intrusive physical examinations and rummaged through all forms of conveyances, as well as swoops, raids, and other enforcement operations in line with their core mandate.
According to him, the Division also utilised technology and shared intelligence to enhance operational efficiency.
He stated that collaboration with other security agencies was essential, particularly because many operations were intelligence-driven and often overlapped with the interests of other units involved in intelligence gathering.
The Chief Revenue Officer said information gathered by Customs on issues such as narcotics could assist another agency, and vice versa, making joint operations important for information sharing.
He noted that while every institution faced logistics challenges, joint operations enabled agencies to pool resources to achieve results, citing the border security architecture, overseen by Customs but jointly operated with other agencies, including the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Immigration Service, National Security, and the Narcotic Control Commission, as an example of how inter-agency collaboration worked in practice.
Mr Mensah said recent joint operations involving the military and police, organised under the auspices of the Gold Board, had resulted in arrest, including foreigners and seizures relating to opioids and petroleum products.
Mr Bonney, on his part, said the Preventive Division made arrests regularly but did not publicise them unless necessary, explaining that because goods examination was the core mandate of Customs, unlike some partner agencies, they did not announce every enforcement action.
He stated that the Division contributed directly to revenue mobilisation through interceptions that attracted penalties of up to 300 per cent, describing such penalties as significant and a deterrent to would-be smugglers.
He added that where offenders were unable to pay, seized items went through the auction or allocation system, also generating revenue for the state.
He noted that the presence of preventive officers heightened compliance, as importers who might otherwise engage in malpractices corrected their declarations once they became aware of operational deployments.
He said Customs employed risk management systems to profile consignments from their points of origin, collaborating with security agencies to obtain information for profiling ahead of arrival, adding that risk assessments and information sharing remained central to securing the supply chain.
GNA
Edited by Christian Akorlie