The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has challenged the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to come out with names of the 43 persons it claimed won the bid in the ongoing customs e-auction.
The National Publicity Secretary of the association, Dr. Kayode Farinto who stated this in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos said this had become necessary to douse the people’s doubt on the transparency of the project adding that Nigerians were interested in knowing the true identity of those that won the bids.
“I just want to say first that I am unable to access the platform. I have tried it several times, I couldn’t have access. So, I wonder who and who has gotten access to it. But you remember they told us that one of the journalists won the bid, I don’t know whether it is from your association or whether he is journalist from the moon. They should give us the name of the journalist. As far as I know, this thing does not exist to me. Many Nigerians are calling me thinking that I have access to the site telling me they were not able to access it. So, I don’t know how they are doing it.
“Secondly, the bank that is even collecting on behalf of customs is not a conventional bank. It is a bank that is not known, Jaiz Bank. I don’t know of Jaiz Bank, we know of Union Bank, First Bank and all these new generation banks. How can it be Jaiz Bank alone? What is the rationale behind Jaiz Bank being the only bank collecting on behalf of customs? Something is wrong somewhere.
“When you say online auction, first, the process should be simple, very accessible, there should be openness and that is the way I know it but this one, you are unable to do what is called bidding except you pay a mandatory N1000 to Jaiz Bank and even the very people that paid the money were still unable to do anything. So, I am confused and they are now telling us that a lot of people have won the bids. Customs should come out with the names of those that won the bids; Nigerians are interested in knowing that, if not, I will say that the so called auction is not transparent”.
On the inability of other banks to operate the platform on account of Interswitch issues that they had, Farinto said, “I want to believe that the PRO of the customs is being economical with the truth because I listened to his interview where he said those conventional banks have problem with Interswitch. If they did not have problem with Interswitch on collection of duty which is even the major thing, why should they now have issue with Interswitch on collection of auction? It shows that the system is not transparent, something is wrong somewhere or better still, everything is stage-managed”.
The ANLCA NPS submitted that the platform was totally set up to benefit a particular section of the country doubting the sincerity of customs management in this regard.
“This process now is very shoddy, it is dome in a nocturnal way, it looks as if it is done at night”, he said.
He posited that even though a section of CEMA allowed customs to carry out auctions on overtime cargoes, it was high time auctions were taken out of customs control as it would go a long way in making the process more transparent as well as in giving the customs a better name.
“It is high time customs leave the issue of auction for the experts who are vast in auctioneering procedures and processes”, he concluded.
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