Assin South MP, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour has strongly rejected the argument that changes to the agencies involved in physical inspection at Ghana’s ports should be blamed for the country’s recent narcotics problems.
The NPP stalwart mentioned this while addressing the removal of NACOC from the compulsory team of agencies involved in physical inspection around 2017 or 2018.
“It is the most unintelligent, incompetent excuse anyone will give,” he said.
Rev. Fordjour argued that major international ports do not necessarily require every intelligence agency to be part of a standing physical inspection team.
He cited the Australian Border Force, which intercepted the 320kg methamphetamine shipment linked to Ghana, saying the agency was not part of a standing committee conducting physical inspections.
He also referred to the authorities in Dunkirk, who intercepted the 3.9-tonne cocaine shipment linked to Tema Port.
The issue was examined in the discussion on Newsfile on JoyNews, where the argument was raised about whether NACOC’s removal from routine physical inspection had contributed to weaknesses at the ports.
Rev. Fordjour said the presence of numerous agencies on a physical inspection team could create delays, particularly given the number of containers passing through the ports.
“Australian Border Force, which busted the 280 million methamphetamine, they are not part of the standing committee,” he said.
He argued that NACOC’s role should be intelligence gathering and directing the agencies conducting physical inspections towards suspicious consignments.
“NACOC is an intelligence-led institution. So you are supposed to be the eye and the ear of the institutions who are doing the physical inspection,” he said.
He also criticised the idea of requiring 16 agencies to inspect containers one after another before a shipment could be cleared.
“If you want to line up 16 agencies, who must come in turns to inspect physically before it is clear, when you know the morale will start kicking in about a matter of days, about 80% of containers will all just be auctioned at 10% of the price that should have gone to the states,” he said.
He described the arrangement as “just an avenue for corruption” and said the solution was not to have more agencies physically inspect every container.
Instead, he said intelligence should identify suspicious cargo before it reaches the physical inspection stage.
His position was that NACOC could remain effective even without being part of every routine physical inspection, provided it properly performs its intelligence function and alerts the relevant agencies.
