Details are beginning to emerge about the dismissal of a worker on the St George’s Port for being engaged in an alleged act of corruption.

THE NEW TODAY understands that the worker was being monitored over a period of time for allowing unmanifested goods coming into the country from ships to leave the port compound without paying duties and taxes to the government.

An informed source said the goods will arrive in Grenada without being on the ship’s Manifest and the suspicion is that because of the activities of the worker “a lot of illegal things could be passing through” the Port.

“A lot of goods coming in and he clearing it out – it’s not going on the Manifest,” he said.

According to the source, the suspicion is that the worker was engaged in this kind of activity for a fee but it appears that “a long time they (the Grenada Ports Authority) have been monitoring him.”

He said that port workers are in a position to facilitate wrongdoing by issuing a manual pass to anyone leaving the Port Compound with Goods.

“The port that run things, not Customs. A lot of things could go out with a pass because it is Port that issues a pass. Customs could give you a red mark (to leave the port) with a date with your stuff but Port could give you a Manual pass which does not go through the system,” he added.

The insider indicated that co-workers of the dismissed employee had approached the Technical & Allied Workers Union (TAWU) to take strike action in support of their colleague but backed off when certain evidence was released to them.

“I understand that they (the workers) wanted to – they had a meeting but they couldn’t do it based on the evidence they showed,” he said.

According to the inside source, the authorities should look not really at truck operators on the port for corrupt activities but at port workers, customs officers and stevedores.

“I always tell them that it is not truck men that touching on the port – it is the big men on the port. They go in and come out without their vehicles being searched but truckers are always subjected to a search of their vehicles,” he said.

The insider indicated that the police who are stationed on the port can search the GPA workers but normally fail to do it.

He pointed out that there is a lot of corruption taking place at the St George’s Port and that some stevedores often go home illegally with goods especially on weekends.

“Them men bursting your stuff – if they see something they want they burst it especially on a weekend and based on who police in the gate everybody eating a food,” he said.

The insider stressed that suspicious packages can often get cleared on the port and GPA workers can then collect them and leave the compound in their vehicles after work with it and then deliver safely to the intended party.

A few months ago, port workers took strike action in support of a female employee who was dismissed for an alleged act of corruption.