Two Persons Arrested For Falsifying Port Documents

Two persons have been arrested and handed over to the Marine Police Unit of the Ghana Police Service for allegedly falsifying GPHA revenue documents and inflating port clearance charges.

The Ghana News Agency gathered that the two Paul Amesu Regatta, a clearing agent and David Kamassah, an internet café operator, were apprehended after they allegedly altered GPHA port charges of GHs 1,749.11 to read GHs 4,491.59

Regatta, is said to have inflated the cost so that he could make a profit of GHs 2,642.48 with the assistance of Kamassah, instead of presenting the actual amount of the port handling charges to the importer who contracted him to assist in clearing his goods out of the port.

Colonel Joseph Punamane, Head of Tema Port Security, who handed over the two to the Police, indicated that the importer who was not happy about the high charges sought clarification from the GPHA revenue centre where he discovered that the document his agent presented to him was fake and the figures had been inflated.

Colonel Punamane described the act as dangerous as according to him, such persons created the impression that port charges were very high “so we found it imperative to deal with them by handing them over to the police”.

Meanwhile, Mrs Esther Gyebi-Donkor, General Manager, Marketing and Corporate Affairs, GPHA, has urged importers who do not trust charges presented to them by their agents to seek the necessary clarification from GPHA.