A front line journalist and Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Kings Communications Limited, Publishers of MMS Newspapers, Mr. Kingsley Anaroke has risen in defense of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria, CRFFN and her Acting Registrar, Mrs. Chinyere Cecilia Uromta who have been receiving backlash in the media in recent times over the inability of the Council to fulfill its statutory obligations including payment of staff salaries.
Anaroke who spoke in a chat with Primetime Reporters in Lagos recently, expressed worry over the consistency with which some high ranking members of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, among others discussed the outstanding arrears of salaries of CRFFN staff which hasn’t been paid for six months now in the media lately.
While acknowledging the fact that such things existed, he however, pointed out that nobody had asked questions about why those payments had not been paid. “They haven’t asked the right questions rather they use every opportunity they have to impugn the credibility of the leadership of CRFFN, which I think is not right”, he said.
The publisher observed that all the registered associations of freight forwarders were accredited members of CRFFN, adding that the onus lied on them to ask the right questions and possibly moved to correct some things that were not right in the Council rather than criticize.
“But let me commend the Minister (of Marine and Blue Economy) for a start, for listening to advice. He has been making moves to pay those outstanding salaries and let me commend him also for ordering them (CRFFN Management) to go back to Lagos which is what it’s supposed to be. Conservatively, 80 percent of CRFFN operations take place in Lagos. So, they should be here like other agencies are here where you have the blue economy working. So, they should be here, they shouldn’t be there and be paying so much for coming here and going there.
“The point is why is it that CRFFN staff salary arrears have even piled up in the first place? The reason is this, CRFFN collective wage bill monthly is about N47 million and their internally generated revenue which comes from POF is about N37 million and I remember that they have been removed from collecting budgetary allocation from the federal government. So, it became a very big challenge for them.
“Now by the enabling law and how they operate, they have a formula for disbursing that same N37 million and what is the formula? Under the Consolidated Revenue arrangement, which makes for automatic deduction of 50 percent of the revenue at source for the federal government. When you deduct 50 percent at source, how much is remaining?
“From the automatic deduction, when you remove 50 percent, you will be having about a little over N17 million. From there, the Council pays SW Global which is the consultant handling POF 20 percent out of that, you also pay the freight forwarding firms and individuals who pay POF who are supposed to collect about 15 percent as declarants and the CRFFN is now left with only 15 percent of the total internally generated revenue. From where did you expect them to get the money to pay for this because it is not enough?
“Not only that, they are supposed to be collecting POF from land borders, they are still working on that with the customs, it hasn’t been sorted out. They are supposed to be collecting from the airport, they have only been given a go ahead by the Ministry of Aviation and NCAA but they have not commenced because of some institutional bottleneck. Then, at the end of the day, what is the problem there? They are supposed to have been paying one month to two months salary, it was not supposed to have accumulated to six months because of internal issues.
“There are people there, in particular, the Director of Finance, Mr. Linus Ikima who feels he is being used to sabotage the effort of this woman so that she’s not seen as being qualified to be appointed a substantive Registrar. He is a Deputy Director. At the end of the day, the woman who is your CEO does not know how much she has in the account. She has written letters to the Minister, no response. She has equally written to the Permanent Secretary, no response, she has even written to the Accountant General, no response. So, how is she supposed to know how much that is there for her to direct what and what to pay?
“This same guy that we are talking about here has issues of right placement and legitimacy because the person who hired him, who was the pioneer Registrar wrote a petition against him that he’s not qualified to be there. Now, remove or redeploy him, no way. The worst of it all is that the Accountant General gave a directive that all the treasuries of MDAs should be manned by his own appointed Treasurers to foster accountability and transparency. Now, the person deployed to CRFFN from the Accountant General’s Office is there not doing any job because the man has refused to relinquish the position to him.
“Severally, the management has called him and say, let us know how much that is left in the purse to be able to know if we should pay one month or two months salary arrears because if you calculate what is left, you may be having about some millions left, put them together multiplied by six, it can pay about one month, if not, half pay. No way, she doesn’t have access to that”, he said.
Anaroke who is also the Convener of the Women Of Fame, Hall of Famers, WOFHOF Initiative recalled that a Panel of Inquiry headed by a Director in the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy was set up by the Minister to investigate the activities of the Council and waa given two months to submit their report for prompt action to be taken to address any visible anomaly in the Council.
He continued, “Could you believe that 80 percent of petitions received by that panel was against this very Ikima, the Director of Finance. What other excuse do you need to remove that man and let that place breathe?
“By my own personal investigation, I discovered that he’s doing this thing in conspiracy with some Directors in the Ministry (of Marine and Blue Economy). Do you know what they are planning? For the woman not to be confirmed as the substantive Registrar. The idea is that the more the salaries pile up, the more indictment they have against her. There are things I don’t want to disclose here. Somebody in there who is supposed to retire in October this year is eyeing that particular position and some from these other tribes. So, the idea is delay this appointment till the person retires.
“If you think she (Uromta) is not qualified to be there, remove her now or change the management, nobody is complaining but trying to run someone down because you want her position, to me, it’s not fair. Nobody send you but like I said earlier, I have observed some things and I do not want to do this (publication) myself otherwise it would have be very disastrous. I am also doing this because everyday we keep reading these consistent reports against this woman. So, these people are managing this to the best of their ability even though the Minister has promised to intervene but I just thought I should clear this air.
“People should ask the right question, why is it that the man who has been the person in the middle of the crisis there, Ikima, nobody has queried him? You know the panel report was submitted, the Minister said that the appointment or removal of anybody will be dependent on the outcome of the panel report. The panel report was submitted but somebody sat on it and don’t want to give it to the Minister until he achieves a particular aim that he wants to achieve.
“So, the Minister cannot act because he needs the report to act. So, why not submit the report? I had to call somebody there to ask what was holding this report, he asked what right do I have to ask questions about the report and I told him I have the right to do so because I am a stakeholder and it’s the right thing to do. The panel’s report has been submitted for close to two months now, why are you holding it? If the report indicts everybody, let them go! But you cannot hold somebody down for almost two years, it’s unconventional.
“Let the right thing be done, if you don’t want her, let her go. Please, they should stop killing CRFFN, that agency is very important, very key. Those who founded CRFFN were not stupid when they did so. Forget about the miscarriage of vision and mission, it is important to them. So, please, let CRFFN breathe positively.”
When asked why the current leadership of CRFFN has not expanded it’s dragnet toget in some others who are supposed to be paying the POF to start paying and to start exploring other revenue sources open to it like annual subscription to shore up the resources of the Council, he say, “Is it not when you enable someone to work that the person will work?
“You have two Directors there who work in cahoot with the people in the Ministry. If I mention names, every day, they will be ordering her to bring this or that. The other day, she and one Director, if they are not at the Senate, they will be at the House of Representatives or with this other one. Is that when she will begin to carry out her duty?
“She has been moving round to get the support of all the agencies. I know she partnered with the immediate past Managing Director of NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko. Bello-Koko arranged a meeting between her agency and the Lekki Deep Seaport and they agreed they were going to support her. She went to NCAA, met with the Minister of Aviation, they called a meeting and they said do this, support her for this.
“The point I am trying to make is that they have not even created an enabling environment for her to thrive, all you want is to create all manner of impediment and then take her out. This is not right. If you don’t want her there any, remove her rather than this back and forth.”
Photo: Mr. Kingsley Anaroke, CEO, Kings Communications Limited, publishers of MMS Newspapers.
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