Three months after they started having disagreements over the issuance of Risk Assessment Reports (RAR) at the Ports and Terminal Multiservice Limited (PTML) command of the Nigeria Custom Service, service providers; Cotecna Destination Inspection and Globalscan System have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will ensure the acceptance of Cotecna RAR’s at the PTML.
Three months after they started having disagreements over the issuance of Risk Assessment Reports (RAR) at the Ports and Terminal Multiservice Limited (PTML) command of the Nigeria Custom Service, service providers; Cotecna Destination Inspection and Globalscan System have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will ensure the acceptance of Cotecna RAR’s at the PTML.
Under the destination inspection scheme, the PTML terminal was among the terminals given to Globalscan System for it to issue Risk Assessment Reports (RAR) and to scan containers for custom purposes, but freight forwarders had three months ago abandoned the services of the company for inefficiency and instead obtain their RAR from Cotecna which is at the Tincan port.
Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the PTML command of the Customs, Mr. Steve Okonma yesterday confirmed to Shipping Position Daily that the disagreements has been resolved and that Globalscan has now agreed to honuor RAR issued by Cotecna.
Okonma said that the agreement was signed last week Thursday and that scanning of containers has resumed at the command after three months of suspension.
Apart from this, a document obtained by our correspondent which was simply signed by the Cuatoms Scanner Manager, PTML Command states that “the issue of non-scanning of Cotecna RAR has been resolved; therefore, before any importer or agent examines his container or goods, he should check the selectivity”.
The document states clearly that all goods meant for scanning must be sent to the scanning seat because, “there will no longer be re-routing after it has been mistakenly examined as physical”.
Vice chairman of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) at the PTML command, Mr. Emmanuel Tobi told our correspondent that agents now prefer to go for 100% examination of their cargo by Customs because the process does not consume time at all.
“We don’t have problems with examination here because we are having enough labour here, by 9am, every container for scanning that day will be lined up, by 10am the agents will be there to witness it. To me, I have not scanned any container in PTML” he said.
Also responding to the development, Chairman of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Mr. Cosmas Ndimkora said almost all the RARs treated at the command are from Cotecna.
“Why it was not working was because almost all the RAR’s treated here are from Cotecna and you can’t expect Globalscan to use the RAR produced by Cotecna to do the work, it will not work, they complained to us the chairmen about this because if you don’t produce you cannot scan. I as chairman of NAGAFF started to mount campaign to sanitize my people and things are beginning to change”, he said.
“If they could on their own have an arrangement with Cotecna, it would be good, to me it all boils down to the 1% CISS because when you produce it, it is your money, if there is a synergy between Globalscan and Cotecna then it is a welcomed idea” Ndimkora stated.
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