Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has raised concerns over what he describes as unjustified customs charges driven by artificial intelligence systems at Ghana’s ports, warning that businesses are being unfairly burdened.
The concerns emerged after a Minority caucus delegation met the Ghana Employers’ Association on March 31 to discuss mounting pressures facing the private sector.
The delegation included Patricia Appiagyei, Jerry Ahmed Shaib, Kwaku Agyeman Kwarteng, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Michael Okyere Baafi, Fred Kyei Asamoah, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, Tweneboah Kodua Fokuo, John Darko, Frederick Addy, Gloria Owusu and Damata Ama Appianimaa Salam.
According to Afenyo-Markin, businesses raised specific concerns about the deployment of an AI-driven system for excise duty assessments.
“Specific cases were raised in which customs assessments generated by the AI system bore no rational relationship to actual transaction values, with compliant importers facing assessments multiple times higher than what the same consignments had previously attracted,” he said.
He stressed that the issue is not about detecting fraud but about wrongful penalties imposed on legitimate businesses.
“This is not a system detecting fraud. In these cases, it is a system generating inflated assessments against businesses that were doing nothing wrong, at considerable cost to them,” he stated.
The Minority Leader clarified that the Caucus is not opposed to the use of artificial intelligence in governance but insists that proper safeguards must be in place.
“We wish to state our position clearly: the Caucus is not opposed to the deployment of artificial intelligence in public administration. Properly implemented, AI has the potential to transform customs enforcement, eliminate human error, reduce corruption at the ports, and accelerate Ghana’s revenue mobilisation,” he said.
However, he warned that the current system fails to meet basic standards required for fairness and accountability.
“However, any deployment of AI in a revenue or enforcement context must meet the relevant legal, technical, and procedural standards. It must operate against a rational and reformed duty schedule.
“It must be subject to independent validation before deployment. It must be accompanied by a transparent, accessible, and time-bound appeals mechanism from the outset. And it must be subjected to parliamentary scrutiny,” he added.
He pointed out that none of these conditions has been satisfied.
“None of those conditions has been met in the case of the Publican Trade Solution,” he said.
Afenyo-Markin also criticised the lack of consultation with stakeholders prior to the system’s rollout.
“The affected business community learned of this only the day before our engagement is itself a statement on the quality of consultation that has attended this deployment,” he noted.
He warned that using AI on an unreformed duty structure only worsens existing problems.
“An AI enforcement system operating against an unreformed duty schedule, without a functioning appeals process, does not produce fairer outcomes. It produces the same unjust outcomes, more efficiently and at a greater scale,” he said.
The Minority Caucus says it will push for parliamentary scrutiny of the system and demand immediate remedies for affected businesses.
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Source: www.myjoyonline.com
