Jerry Ahmed defends 2018 NACOC port reform, calls for bipartisan probe into drug cases

Second Deputy Minority Whip and Member of Parliament for Weija-Gbawe, Jerry Ahmed Shaib, has defended the decision to exclude the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) from routine joint physical inspections of export containers at Ghana’s ports in 2018.

He said the decision was part of reforms aimed at reducing duplication and delays after about 16 government agencies were involved in inspecting containers at the ports.

His comments come amid renewed scrutiny of the port inspection system following the seizure of nearly 3.9 tonnes of suspected cocaine by French customs at the port of Dunkirk from a container shipped from Ghana.

Speaking on Accra-based TV3’s Hot Issues on Sunday, September 27, Ahmed Shaib said the 2018 decision did not remove NACOC from the ports but only excluded it from routine physical inspections for exports.

“The action to remove NACOC from the ports in 2018 was premised on a very good reason. NACOC was only taken out of the routine joint physical inspection for export because we had over 16 other agencies doing the same thing,” he said.

He explained that NACOC officers continued to operate at the ports and were expected to intervene when intelligence pointed to a particular container or consignment.

Mr Shaib also argued that the reforms were consistent with efforts to reduce bureaucracy under Ghana’s paperless port system and streamline the inspection process.

According to him, importers and exporters had complained about multiple agencies repeatedly inspecting the same containers, creating delays and bureaucratic bottlenecks.

He further criticised claims that the 2018 reform should be directly blamed for the recent cocaine cases.

His comments follow criticism from government officials and other political actors who have linked the recent drug trafficking cases to NACOC’s exclusion from routine physical inspections.

GoldBod Chief Executive Officer Sammy Gyamfi, for instance, has argued that the 2018 decision weakened NACOC’s ability to detect and prevent narcotics trafficking through the ports.

The government has since restored NACOC to the mandatory joint inspection process at the ports as part of measures to strengthen checks against narcotics trafficking.

The MP also questioned why, if the 2018 reforms were responsible for the current challenges, subsequent governments had not identified and addressed the alleged gaps earlier.