The CEPS Color Party

Which color do you prefer?

“Caaaalah parteeey! Change direction right.  Riiiiiiiiiiight foooorrrm. Forward.  Caaaalah parteey! Change direction left.Left form, left form. Caaaalah parteeeeey! Halt! Caaaalah escorts! Preseeeeeent arms!.”

Those are samples of the commands I used to give as the senior ensign of the cadet corps of my hall at college. Those were memorable days where we try to enact similar army drills and formation. Every hall has a cadet corps and each one does its best to put up a good show on their respective hall weeks.

Among the cadet corps, the main “color” is the color party. They troop in with the colors of the hall and the national flag and it is such a joy to watch. Our cadet corps was an army cadet so I guess the army also does that on special parades such as the annual Queen’s Birthday Parade though ours is not as grand as that.

The uniforms of the color party is distinctly different from that of the whole contingent and what makes it sweeter is that the color party can only be called to march on and off by the CO and no one else [so imagine being a senior color ensign, ;)]. You take orders only from the top. We are the last to get onto the parade and the first to leave it. How sweet, less of the scorching sun either way.

Now not to deviate from what I want to talk about here. As I said earlier, the army generally have this tradition of showing on parade the color party and it is soooo nice with the over-stretched commands, but it only makes it nicer to look at. Due to this I was thinking if the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) by any chance have these practices.

During the undercover investigations of Anas at the Tema port, it dawned on me that CEPS also has a color party but it was in a different form altogether from that which I have experienced at school. Now instead of the army band and parades and marching orders, theirs got to do with the colors of the denominations they are taking as bribes.

The “secret filming” done by the investigative reporter at the port featured CEPS officials demanding specific colors in which they want their bribes. So depending on the amount of bribe you are paying, the official would as for blue[GHC5], green[GHC10], somewhat violet[GHC20] or brown[GHC50]. It looks like they were less willing to take the reds[GHC1] and the yellows[GHC2].

So depending on the amount of damage you are paying, the officials wouldn’t want to burden themselves with having to carry large amounts of smaller denominations so would prefer them in higher denominations. The impudence of bribe taker.

The level of corruption has been tolerated to the extent that the person extorting the money from you even has the nerve to demand the type of notes the bribe should come in. The police on the roads even do that. Prior to the introduction of the new cedi, they were content with taking the five thousand note but when the new cedi didn’t feature the now GHp50[which was the old 5000 cedi] they demanded the red GHC1. now that there has been an introduction of a GhC2, they tell the drivers  “me pε yellow.” How beautiful.

Some may argue that if the people are doing the right thing then there wouldn’t be any need to coerce them into giving bribes. That is mostly not the case. Time is a luxury most business people cannot afford so if you are ready to spend countless hours at government offices for a certain letter to be endorsed or a form filled without the usual facilitating fee then you better bring a mattress. Some officials deliberately delay you just because you have refused to grease their palms. No fault of yours so why not sacrifice a few cedis instead of wasting hours or even weeks [the usual “go and come back in two weeks” for a simple endorsement]. Those of us who refuse have so many stories to tell as this entrepreneur who refuses to bend to the dictates of the system. She has so many interesting stories to tell.

I guess one of the best ways to curb these practices, as the president said, would be to institute a regime for revenue authorities to declare their assets before employment since they seem to make more money than even the most dedicated corrupt politician.

I”ll l keep you posted.