CEPS JUNIOR STAFF APPEAL TO RAGB (NOV 14, PAGE 23)

JUNIOR officers of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) have called on the Revenue Agencies Governing Board (RAGB) to reduce the number of steps they have to go through before becoming senior officers.
They also suggested that CEPS officials who lost their lives or got injured in the course of their work must be rewarded and honoured.
The Chairman of the Junior Staff Association, Mr Felix A. Brobbey made the call at the ninth biennial national delegates conference of the association at Koforidua.
The four-day conference, on the theme: “Integrated revenue collectors-The dawn of a new era in revenue mobilisation,” which was attended by delegates throughout the country, was to take stock of the association’s activities with a view to enhancing revenue collection.
According to Mr Brobbey, there were 17 promotional steps within the service junior officers had to go through, nine to reach the senior level, which makes it impossible for most of them to attain senior staff status before retirement.
He expressed the hope that recommendations made jointly by management and the senior and junior staff to address the issues would be considered.
Mr Brobbey said the junior staff association had performed creditably, mobilising over 50 per cent of the total national revenue over the years despite the numerous challenges.
He, however, appealed to his colleagues to eschew all forms of indiscipline and adopt the best working practices and lead simple lifestyles to keep away accusing fingers.
Mr Brobbey urged the CEPS management to honour their obligation to the staff in terms of refund of medical expenses and payment of retirement and long-service benefits since non-payment of such benefits had the potential to make the service corrupt.
The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, expressed dissatisfaction about the inhuman condition under which CEPS officials worked at the entry and collection points, and gave the assurance that he would contact other regional ministers to see how best to solve that problem.
Mr Ofosu Ampofo commended CEPS for its credible performance over the years.
The Executive Secretary of the Revenue Agencies Governing Board (RAGB), Mr Samuel Sallas-Mensah, said over the past four years, tax revenue had grown on the average of more than 20 per cent, which supported about 60 per cent of government expenditure budget.
He stated that despite such a good performance of tax revenue, there was still room for improvement, adding “we still have to do a lot more work to expand the tax net, seal the leakage and provide quality service.
Mr Sallas-Mensah also explained to them the integration of the three revenue collection agencies, namely CEPS, Internal Revenue Service and the Value Added Tax, giving the assurance that there would not be any job loss.
For his part, the Commissioner of CEPS, Mr E.R.K. Lanyon, briefed them about the modernisation exercise currently going on at CEPS to improve staff performance in mobilising more revenue.
He asked the junior officers to observe the code of conduct in the course of their duty so that there would not be a situation to dismiss any of them for avoidable infractions.