MPs Commend West Blue

Ms Valentina Minta (3rd left) in a group picture with the members of the committee

West Blue Consulting has earned the admiration and commendation of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Trade, Industry and Tourism.

The Committee, on Monday paid a familiarization visit to the offices of West Blue to get members acquainted with the company's operations after which the Committee Chairman,  Nii Kwartei Titus Glover pledged support of his team for the company.

Mr. Glover, a very principled parliamentarian, speaking on behalf of the visiting Committee said they were impressed with the work West Blue was doing to help government meet its revenue objectives at the ports and particularly the enviable achievement of reducing import clearance transactions at the Tema Port and the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) from a period of two weeks to two hours.

Titus Glover made it clear that the company was doing a good job and therefore deserves all necessary support it needs to help government meet its revenue objectives at the ports.

The Committee chairman said though there were a lot of misconceptions and misinformation when West Blue started its operations, available facts proved beyond doubt that the company has helped trade facilitation, reduce the cost and time of doing business at the ports.

He said with the requisite institutional support and corporation, the company could perform even better than it has done in the previous year.

Members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Trade, Industry and Tourism were taken through the operations of West Blue by the company's Chief Executive, Valentina Minta who used a power point presentation to explain her company's achievements and backed the presentation by verifiable facts and figures.

Valentina Minta gave an assurance that the company would continue to work with government and stakeholders to ensure the nation enjoys the full benefits of a facilitated trade environment making doing business in Ghana easy.

CHALLENGES
Ms. Minta revealed that there were challenges of some individuals and companies at the ports still involved in several dubious activities that reduce government revenue and enriches private purses.

She specifically mentioned the challenges of under-declaration, mis-description of items, manipulation of shipping documents (Bill of lading/ Airway bill), wrong origin of goods, misclassification, under-invoicing and undervaluation

The West Blue Chief Executive called for the enforcement of air and sea manifest submission to Pre-Arrival Assessment Reporting Systems (PAARS) in line with stipulated laws and complete integration between all systems involved in international trade (National Integrated Risk Management System (NIRMS), PAARS, GCMS, eMDA, Portal, GICCS Manifest, Financial Systems (Swift, Banking Systems etc.).

She disclosed that the company will be rolling out a lot of activities in the next quarter which would include training and Go-live of Exporter Registration for Ghana Export Promotion Authority; Automation of Importer Registration, Exporter Registration for Food and Drugs Authority and Automation of Courier Process for Ghana Post.

She also urged authorities to ensure 100 percent compliance and frequent financial reporting by the banks on trade transactions, ensure all trade statutory documents are respected and any deviations/changes reported through a single feedback mechanism to aid identification of defaulting officers or declarants.

Ms Minta said government must also enforce penalties and sanctions on deviant entities, calling for the continuous improvement of PAARS and capacity building.

SINGLE WINDOW
West Blue Consulting in partnership with the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority launched the Ghana National Single Window (GNSW) project in 2015.

The project has made impressive inroads by reducing import clearance transactions at the Tema Port and the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) from 14 days to two hours, and increasing government’s revenue at the ports.

As a result of such initiatives, Ghana’s ranking has increased in the World Bank Trading Across Border Reports from 167 in 2015 to 154 in 2017; and in the Sub-Saharan Africa Region, Ghana ranked Number 1 in West Africa and Top 10 in Sub-Saharan Africa, coming in the 9^th position out of the 47 countries ranked in the region.

The country also made tremendous improvements in the Global Logistics Performance Index (LPI) ranking, rising 12 places from 100th in 2014 to 88th in 2016 out of 160 countries.

The company is a world class business & IT-consulting firm.