There was apprehension at the Western ports last week as a team of customs officers from the customs headquarters arrived Lagos ports as well as the Tincan Island ports, all in Lagos to take over examination of cargoes at the ports.
On arrival, the Licensed Customs agents as well as the freight forwarders became restive for so many reasons one of which was the believe that the arrival and takeover of examination of cargoes by the said officers was a clear case of a vote of no confidence by the customs headquarters on the officers resident at the ports.
Speaking in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos on the matter, the Secretary, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Evang. Chuks Kanikwu averred that the development was not in line with the international best practices which includes the World Trade Organization (WTO) instruction on duplication of function.
Kanikwu stated that if those officers should be deploy from the customs headquarters to come and perform the original duty of the resident officers at the various commands, it was a clear sign of a vote of no confidence from the Office of the Comptroller-General on the officers on ground.
According to him,” Then if these people should come, it is that the CGC or whoever posted them has given a vote of no confidence on the officers of the commands on ground because there is no different job that they have come to do that the officers on ground have not been doing unless they want to tell us there is something in there.
“It will definitely impede trade facilitation, it will overheat the polity because it is setting officers on ground against these wise men or the wise young officers they brought about here and you know at this period customs has been meeting their targets. This is where they enter with confusion because to me, it will not facilitate trade”.
He recalled that there were compliance unit which was known as the Customs Intelligence Unit (CIU), the Conmptroller-General of Customs (CGC) Taskforce as well as the resident officers on ground performing examination of cargo saying that those men were enough since they were computer literate.
He pointed out that the development would end up feeding the shipping companies and the terminal operators fat on rents and demurrage on account of dwell time of cargo at the ports insisting that the development would add to the dwell time of cargo.
“It will have been very restive in the terminals if not for the intervention of the associations by telling them to calm down let us find out the real motive. Can you imagine, they have stopped the realizing of cargoes for now. In this early time of this administration coming in, we cannot afford to have any confusion. It is confusion, they are in every command. That means the customs management has passed a vote of no confidence on the officers in the commands. Let them tell us.
“And these are the people that generated the revenue they are clapping for him about that he is meeting his targets. I don’t know whether they are going to cut our flesh for them to get satisfied”, he said.
Responding, the Customs Public Relations Officer, Tincan Island Command, Mr. Chris Osunkwo explained that the mission of the said customs officers deployed from the customs headquarters was experimental.
Osunkwo informed that the management decided that they should be sent to commands because they had been specially trained and upgraded in conducting physical examination of cargoes.
He added that the men would be watched so as to determine if their impact and their efforts in the examination of cargoes would improve the service’s revenue considering the economic situation of the nation adding that the service was looking for ways of improving revenue accruable to the government.
On whether the deployment of the officers was a vote of no confidence on the officers at the commands, he had this to say,” No, it doesn’t get to that. The truth is that there is no harm in trial, life is all about experiment of knowledge. So, at one time or the other, you look round and say let’s try this thing this way. That was why I started by telling you that it is experimental, it doesn’t mean that there is no confidence but they received special training on how to carry out examination which every officer will undergo.
“So, being the first people that undergone this training, they being experimented with. It is a practicalization of extra acquired knowledge”.
On whether the officers would transfer the knowledge they acquired on the resident officers in the course of their duty at the various commands of assignment, he replied,” Yes, because it is learning by doing. As they are carrying out this expertise, they are applying their special knowledge, and then those on ground will be watching them. They are expected to learn them.
“It is just that sometimes, you know what people don’t understand, they fear because you know, most of these stakeholders, these freight forwarders, they don’t understand their mission, they just saw them and started protesting saying no, why will these people be posted here and the CG has made it so clear through a circular that there is other group he sent to the port in any guise. There is no other group, it is just these groups that are specially trained and sent to the commands, that all. The CIU is still there playing their roles, the CIU has a defined role to play in terms of cargo clearance”.
On efforts to get the stakeholders on the same page with them on the matter, Osunkwo said,” Last week, my boss, we called them for a meeting to explain because I told you that what you don’t understand, you are bound to be afraid of. So, my Oga, the controller explained things to them and they are now on the same page with us and that was why because the CGC has a listening ear, he is a very sensitive and responsive person, he sent in circular explaining the situation that look, there is no taskforce of any type from the CGC, there is no CGC taskforce of anything”.
Send your news, press releases/articles to info@primetimereporters.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @Reportersinfo and on Facebook at facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526.
