It is wrong to auction demurrage goods cheaply - Kwabena Agyepong

Former General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, thinks that it is about time Ghana takes immediate steps to stop the practice whereby demurrage goods are seized and auctioned cheaply to others.

For him, it is disturbing to seize goods on the basis that the owners could not pay the duties on such goods only to auction the same goods at a much lower price to others.

He believes that such a culture does not promote national development, pointing out that due to that practice, some officials at the ports had made it their business to confiscate goods and auction to their people.

Mr Agyei Agyepong, who is a Presidential hopeful was speaking in a radio interview with Accra-based Okay FM on Tuesday (August 30, 2022).

He said such things could be stopped through administrative direction by the government.

He expressed concern that due to some of the practices at the ports, the country was losing huge sums of money to private pockets, stressing that out of the monies generated at the ports, only about 20 per cent gets into the state coffers.