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Over four years into the merging of all the existing state revenue collecting institutions into one body, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), internal agitations about dissatisfaction among officers at Customs Division of GRA have started coming up. There is even a court action filed at the Supreme Court on behalf of the Customs Division seeking to revoke the merger of Customs Excise and Prevention Service (CEPS) from GRA. Custom officers interviewed in this story alleged that the merger has not only reduced their morale, but also created avenue for mismanagement and waste of financial resources to the state. �Customs officers are entitled to frontier allowance by virtue of their work, which is enshrined in the 1992 Constitution. IRS and VAT do not have any duty along the borders, yet they also receive frontier allowance. Why should it be so? The Commissioner-General and the board are causing financial loss to the state by merging the salaries of the three institutions,� a Senior Customs Officer whose identity is being protected disclosed in an interview. The Ghana Revenue Authority has oversight responsibility of all the taxation agencies in the country. The Authority was established as result of a merger of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Custom, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), Value Added Tax Service (VATS), and the Revenue Agencies Governing Board (RAGB) Secretariat. This was in accordance with the Ghana Revenue Authority Act 2009, Act 791. Whilst VAT, IRS and CEPS, which are all tax collecting agencies, RAGB was playing the role of coordinating the activities of the three institutions. However, a copy of the suit on behalf of Customs before the Supreme Court in possession of this paper seeks to invalidate the GRA Act which makes Customs Division a department of the Ghana Revenue Authority when the Constitution of Ghana constitutes CEPS as a separate and distinct Public Service. The Statement of Plaintiff�s case among other claims states, that the Commissioner of CEPS shall be appointed by the President of Ghana under article 195 of the 1992 Constitution. The Plaintiff also stated that article 190(1) of the Constitution provides for a separate and distinct CEPS as a constituent part of the Public Services of Ghana, and a close scrutiny of the constitutional provisions relating to CEPS such as article 83(j) of the Constitution clearly shows that CEPS was conceived and created by the constitution-makers as a distinct part of the National Security Council. Article 190(1) of the Constitution states: �The Public Services of Ghana shall include the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service.� Furthermore, the Plaintiff recalled the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service Act, 1986 (PNDCL 144) and the CEPS Management Act, 1993 (PNDCL 330) which CEPS officers have the same powers, authorities and privileges conferred by law on police officers, and more specifically for the purpose of performing their function as a security agency. Supporting the validity of the claim, the Plaintiff quoted the sections 17 and 30 (5) of the Ghana Revenue Authority Act which makes CEPS a Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority with a contrary effect that CEPS, a creation of the Constitution, ceases to exist as a separate and distinct entity as provided for by article 190 (1) of the Constitution. It also the case of the Plaintiff that by section 30 (3) of the Ghana Revenue Authority Act seeking to substitute Commissioner-General of GRA for Commissioner of CEPS in any enactment, the Ghana Revenue Authority Act stealthily seeks to amend provisions of the Constitution in a manner that is inconsistent with the amendment processes stipulated in the Constitution. There is also a reference to the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Customs, Excise and Preventative Service (No.2) v National Labour Commission & Attorney �General [2011] SCGL 85 (�the Customs Case�) that because CEPS is a security organisation, its employees cannot unionise per the provisions of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651). However, on the strength of the provisions of the Ghana Revenue Authority Act, and in particular, based on the present �departmental status� of CEPS within the Ghana Revenue Authority, the Authority has permitted officers of CEPS to unionise by joining the Public Services Workers� Union of the Ghana Trade Union Congress. The case currently before Ghana�s apex court has one John Deporres Ayimbire as Plaintiff and the Attorney-General, Ghana Revenue Authority as Defendants. Melcom plus at Aflao boarder For the officers at the Customs Division of GRA, the internal agitations against the merger have evolved many issues. For instance, protest over �unnecessary bureaucracy� as a result of movement of officers back and forth with official documents, including the business community to see the Commissioner of Customs at IRS Headquarters and return to the Customs Headquarters has been condemned as �waste of man-hours� by officers. Complaints over staff strength to support work output is an issue officers are not happy with. The GRA administration is blamed for the current recruitment shortfall in the Customs Division. Delayed enlistment of sportsmen into the division after two years a list was submitted has been cited as Customs� inability to participate in the annual Security Services Sports Association (SESSA) games. The above sentiments were also stated by Major General Carl Modey, immediate-past Commissioner of Customs during his retirement farewell parade that �Customs must be recognised as a unique security service in a non-security environment and this requires special considerations and attention.� �Five years of non-recruitment of staff into a security service like Customs distort the National Security architecture apart from the stress on the staff and the serious impact on succession planning in the future. This should be prevented. �Operational command and control of such a security service should not be impeded by undue bureaucracy. Objectives and targets can only be achieved through timely decision making, prompt action flexibility and adequate resources,� Major-General Carl Modey stated. Again, the GRA board and management have been accused of renting a building complex on the Ghana- Togo boundary in Aflao to Melcom plus as a retail store. The contention over the rent is that for any commercial activity to take place along the border, the operator must have free zone license, which Melcom plus do not have. While those who object the renting of a state property close to the border to Melcom as a treat to revenue collection because un-customed goods can easily be channeled through it premises, the location of a retail store in a strictly security zone does not give a proper security facelift to the Ghana part of the border which is already in a deplorable condition compared to the current upgrade of facilities at the Togolese end of the border. The deplorable conditions at the Aflao Border has once caused the rage of the Paramount Chief of the Aflao Traditional Area, Torgbui Amenya Fiti V, who called for a probe into the whereabouts of GH�100 million released for the Aflao Border Facelift Project in 2008. Daily Graphic�s Victor Kwawukume reported from Aflao in the Volta Region. According to the Daily Graphic report, the project was supposed to give the border a new face and provide modern facilities at the entry point to Ghana from Togo. Somehow, the project was abandoned not long after it began, but the status of the amount released continued to be shrouded in mystery. Torgbui Fiti V made the call when a Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr Isaac Adjei-Mensah called on him as part of a visit to the Volta Region. �The paramount chief, who appeared visibly disturbed and at certain times emotional, decried the deplorable state of the Aflao Border, which contrasted sharply with the neat and orderly appearance of the Togo side of the frontier, saying it was regrettable that the state raked in so much revenue from that border, yet it remained in that poor state,� report said.