A former Chairman of the Governing Council of the Council for Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Aare Hakeem Olanrewaju has accused the federal government of subtly corrupting the freight forwarding practitioners through the yearly budgetary allocation to the Council.
Olanrewaju who made this allegation in a statement in Lagos on Thursday observed that approximately the amount used to kick start the administrative life of the CRFFN between the year 2008 and 2012 (of the first and second Governing Council) was in the average of N200 million to N250 million.
He recalled that out of this approximated amount; staff were recruited and salaries promptly paid, official vehicles were purchased, capacity building programs were conducted, membership with the International Federation of Freight Forwarding Associations (FIATA) formalized office structures were rented across the zones and operational head offices rented in Lagos and Abuja, international professional exchange programs attended among others.
He pointed out that experience had shown that administering a professional Council of this size was never a rocket science in terms of massive and over bloated yearly budgetary allocation as presently obtained.
According to him, “As a professional Regulatory Council and from what is obtainable elsewhere amongst the comity of freight forwarding nations, we do not really need all this gigantic edifices (tagged headquarters & zonal administrative offices and institutes) being put in place.
“What governs a professional Council is the principle of discipline, transparency, moderation and prudency especially when it comes to financial management and not the spirit of negligence, squandering and recklessness.
“Ideally, in a viable and competitive freight forwarding Profession, most of the said ongoing projects are actually projects that the practitioners through visionary leadership of the CRFFN can easily attract through international donations via our international participation in the global freight forwarding advancement programs and empowerment schemes.
“In the local front, with an ideal financial administration, this said projects are achievable subject to professional administrative planning, budgeting and execution via visionary leadership.
“As a professional Council, we are supposedly careful and conscious to budget and expense in likely equation and correspondence with our yearly income via yearly subscriptions, enforcement of regulatory sanctions, sales of professional publications, professional levies, donations, corporate brand materials, etc.”
The former Governing Council Chairman regretted that 12 years after the registration of the CRFFN with the umbrella body, the FIATA, what they could point to the international body which had concluded a trained the trainer program followed by the accreditation of professional training institutions across the geo political zones of the nation was an endless ongoing projects of the CRFFN.
“What a shame of a profession, even worse, when we discover that even the CRFFN yearly budgetary is way far above that of FIATA yearly budget, what an irony of professional inclination.
“Let me shock you by saying that the government is massively corrupting the leadership of the freight forwarders cum the practitioners, doing so in an obvious subtle manner aka over inflated project contracts and elephant projects.
“Consequently, the practitioners now find it much rewarding and most profitable to do everything humanly possible to get elected into the Governing Council rather than face its professional practices.
“This growing trend is dangerous and a professional albatross has to be stopped”, he warned.
Olanrewaju who is a chieftain of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) maintained that this was rather a deliberate professional distraction caused by the government even as he queried, “what happens when another government comes to power and discovers that this present trending of setting up edifices which in the future cannot be sustainable for prudent professional practitioners whose activities are service related is a mere waste of public fund?”
While stating that this deliberate dubbing of their legitimate professional Council as a quango professional Council by government operatives had to stop, he added that “in due course, we shall institute a process that will engender probity by the concerned authorities.”
However, a breakdown of the 2021 budget appropriation for CRFFN on projects alone excluding salaries and office administrations reflected as follows;
ERGP22112633 Insurance Premium ongoing 250,000,000; ERGP27112619 Construction of Nigerian Institute of Freight Forwarding/Rehabilitation of Lagos Office Building Ongoing 720,000,000:00; ERGP27112653 Construction of Outpost Offices Across the Border Station in the Country ongoing 50,000,000;00; ERGP27134169 Development and Construction of Headquarters Office Complex ongoing 1,013,670,259:00; ERGP27139504 Designs of the Six Zonal Offices in the Six Geopolitical Zones ongoing 50,000,000:00 and ERGP29112648 Automation of the Council Operational and Revenue Collection TSA System including Software ongoing 40,000,000:00.
Others according to the breakdown are; ERGP30134185 Subscription to International Bodies, FIATA & TIACA ongoing 40,000,000:00; ERGP30134190 Development of Six Zonal Offices in the Six Geopolitcal Zones ongoing 356,594,818:00; ERGP78712460 Capacity Building for Freight Forwarders on Improving Nigeria’s Competitiveness Through Logistics Programme Index New 150,000,000;00 and ERGP78712460 Monitoring and Evaluation of Council’s Capital Projects New 120,000,000:00.
There is also ERGP78712460 Evaluation of Council’s Operations by the Governing Board and Its Meetings New 100,000,000:00 and ERGP78712460 Corporate Social Responsibility New 50,000,000:00 with the entire sum amounting to N2, ,940, 265,077.
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