GCNet to deploy $15m system to enhance revenue collection

The Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNet) is to spend up to $15 million on the deployment of new system features that will enable it to enhance its operations, including revenue collection at the various entry points in the country.

These will include an enhanced permit module and a new warehousing module as well as a feature that enables local banks to check the status of imports/exports which they have financed in the system.

The Deputy Managing Director of GCNet, Mr Emmanuel Darko, announced this during an interaction with a cross section of the media in Accra as part of a programme to sensitise them to the operations of the network.

“There will also be an interface of the Ghana Customs Management System (GCMS) with the Ghana Integrated Financial management Information Systems (GIFMIS), deployed by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, to enable the ministry and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) have a complete picture of revenue inflows and expenditure therefrom for effective budgeting purposes,”he said.

Mr Darko also made reference to the e-Governance Project that GCNet was undertaking for the GRA and the Registrar General’s Department to automate company and TIN registration, electronic assessment and the filling of income and related domestic taxes electronically.

According to him, the new system, Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), among others, have been deployed at the headquarters of the Registrar General’s Department and a few at the GRA tax offices and will be extended to a number of regional tax offices in the course of the year.

Mr Darko further noted that the company had also been able to deploy its “services to all customs stations and approximately 98 per cent of Customs revenue is collected through the system.”

He said since its inception, GCNet had undertaken continuous system improvements to enable its system operate at the leading edge of technology, adding that not only “are the latest ICT hardware and software deployed but there is a conscious effort for the GCNet to maintain its trailblazing role that made it deploy the first electronic tracking system in Africa for Ghana Customs.”

For his part, the Executive Chairman of GCNet, Mr Nortey Omaboe, noted that the GCNet project was a clear demonstration of how effectively and efficiently public and private sectors could work in partnership for the mutual benefit of the country.

“As a public-private partnership (PP), GCNet is obliged to interact frequently with both the public and private sectors. As one of the first PPPs to be incorporated in Ghana, it has worked very well and brought remarkable results in the delivery of service,” he said and added that “as a result, GCNet is recognised as a model PPP and successful provider of e-governance services.”

Mr Omaboe said the GCNet service, through the automated system, had brought about significant changes in the manner in which trade revenue mobilisation processes were conducted.

“Change management often encounters resistance and GCNet also faces challenges in its operations,” he added.

He, therefore, called for the support of the media to disseminate the achievement of the company to enable it to overcome some of the challenges and misconceptions that GCNet encountered in the delivery of its service.

Source: Daily Graphic