The Importers have been urged to co-operate with the Post-Clearance Audit Unit of the GRA’s (Ghana Revenue Authority) the Customs Division to make sure the fast clearance of their goods at the ports.
According to Mr Isaac Crentsil, the Deputy Commissioner of the unit, the execution of post-clearance audit was part of the risk management strategy plan.
The Deputy Commissioner addressed during a workshop for importers in Accra.
The Post-Clearance Audit Unit is an audit-based customs control executed next to the release of cargo from the custody of customs.
The objective of such audits is to confirm the authenticity of announcements and covers the control of business systems, the traders’ commercial data, records and books.
Such an audit can take place at the sites of the marketeer and can take into account individual transactions, or protect imports and exports managed over a certain time period.
According to Mr Crentsil, the objective of post-clearance audits was to make sure that all goods were announced at the time they were being cleared at the port and all revenue because of the state measured and collected.
He added, “It also assists to make sure that limitations or prohibitions are noticed”. The Post-clearance audit could be organized on a case-by-case basis, emphasizing on picked out operators, selected on the grounds of danger analysis of the commodity and the buyer, or in a targeted, regular way, intend in an annual audit program.
The audit, he pointed out, could also be used as criteria to grant a special exception to particular economic operators.
Processes:
Mr Crentsil said, as part of the processes for carrying out the audit, the selected company would be notified and a first meeting organized between the auditors and officials of the company.
He stated, “then we revise the systems of company by studying documentation relating to imports, such as the quantity ordered, payment orders, certificates, way bills and financial statement, records entered in books, about a determined period to make sure compliance with the Customs Act. This can assist the company to intensify its internal control methods”.
According to him, earlier than releasing a final report on the audit, the team prepared an interim report, which the company had ten days to answer to.
Mr Frank Jones Abban, the Deputy Commissioner of the Preventive Unit of the Customs Division, who led the function, noted the workshop was to emphasize the significance of post-clearance audit as an indispensable and complex part of customs clearance and risk management technique.
