By Steve Agbota
The House of Representatives has concluded plans to probe the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) over 22 abandoned cargo scanners worth $120 million at the nation’s seaports.
In coming to the decision to proceed with the probe, the lawmakers had expressed worries over the inability of the Service to maintain the 22 scanners purchased in 2006.
But rather than the Customs management under its Comptroller General Col. Hameed Ali (Retd) maintaining the machines, opted to purchase additional three scanners delivered early this year which it is yet to deploy.
At the investigative hearing on the transparency on the transfer of technical know-how from the inspection agents (Contecna Destination Inspection Limited and Global Scan Systems Limited), Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, said the House would ascertain the status of the machines, stressing that despite the massive investments for their acquisition and modernisation mandate, the Service did not achieve its objectives.
Gbajabiamila queried the continued resort to physical inspection of cargoes as time-consuming, ineffective and laced with corruption.
According to him, manual cargo inspection also contributes to delays in the clearance process at the ports and land borders. He said it was, therefore, an untenable status quo, that must be change.
In his presentation, National President of the Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics in Nigeria, Mr. Frank Ogunojemite, said that the purchase of the scanners without any attempt on the part of the government to reach out to the original equipment manufacturer to ascertain if the old ones can be salvaged, proved that the problems confronting Nigeria’s modern cargo examination bordered on lack of maintenance culture.
He said the purchase a new set of scanners was not a solution, but that the problem will most likely repeat itself if no individual or agency is held responsible for their maintenance.
He hinted that ensuring the efficiency of cargo examination and improved competitiveness, will prevent the government from engaging the OEM to repair the previous scanners and put them back to use alongside the new ones that may be required.
“As the NCS has proved itself to be incapable of handling something as sensitive as operations and maintenance of multimillion naira scanners, to avoid a repeat of history, beat left in the hands of contracted DI agents who will operate and maintain them,” he said.
Meanwhile, Minister of Finance, National Budget and Planning, Ms. Zainab Ahmed, has said the Federal Government decided to purchase new scanners as spare parts were not available to repair existing ones.
