Guardian

PORT users and operators have called on the Federal Government to put in place a transition monitoring group that would midwife the transfer of goods inspection service at the nation’s gateways to the government through the Federal Ministry of Finance.

Those who spoke with The Guardian on the matter on Monday said the body was necessary to ensure the right inspection equipment are handed over to the government by the service providers was not ready enough to provide the service as expressed in the contract too the service providers many years ago.

According to sources, the ministry felt that customs officials still lack the technical know-how to operate the scanning machines to be inherited from the service providers, as only few of them had undergone training.

Besides, the ministry felt there was need to carry out a thorough audit of the infrastructure to be inherited from the service providers to find out if port users and operators have commended the Federal Government for extending the Destruction Inspection (DI) container it signed with service providers seven years ago.

The Federal Government had last week extended the seven years contracts it signed with Cotecna, SGS and Global Scan System Ltd by six months, saying it was for national interest. The contracts were supposed to have lapsed last month.

Government accepted the extension proposal from the Federal Ministry of Finance which believed that the Nigeria Customs Service was not equipped enough to take over from the service providers.

Stakeholders who spoke with The Guardian on Monday, commended the government for the six months extension, saying with the extension the expected crisis at the ports has been averted.

Lucky Amiwero, a customs broker and the National President of Council of Managing Directors of Customs Licenced Agents (NCMDCLA), said there was need to carry out a comprehensive audit of inspection equipment already put in place by the contractors before the final takeover.

He said the equipment should be handed over to the Federal Ministry of Finance which signed the contract with the service providers and not the Nigeria Customs Service.

He faulted the attempt by the customs high command to hurridly take over the scheme without recourse to its supervisory ministry- the Federal Ministry of Finance.

He also suggested a transition period to be administered by a committee to midwife the transformation process.

Other stakeholders who spoke on the matter said the six months extension was a welcome development, saying the country’s trading partners around the globe were already agitated about what becomes of Nigeria and its trading activities by January 1, 2013.

An engineer with one of the service providers who spoke on ground of anonymity at the weekend said: “Those who have negotiated trade instruments were at sea as to what becomes of their goods that were in transit to Nigerian Ports. Those who were still negotiating some trade deals were confused as to what constitutes authentic documents for international trade with the Nigerian trading community.”

But a senior management staffer with one of the contractors said: “The Federal Government pronouncement came at the right time and has acted as a soothing balm and cleared a lot of doubts. The six months given, short as it may be, is for the scanning service providers, Nigeria Customs Service and the Federal Government to work out a seamless transition programme and to adequately inform both local and international trading communities of anticipated changes and to put all necessary structures in place.”

He said service providers, within this period, were expected to work closely with the officers and men of the Nigeria Customs Service to fully impart the technical knowledge required whilst officers and men of the Nigeria Customs Service were expected to see the service providers as partners in progress and willingly collaborate with them to achieve the anticipated objectives.