Since he was posted to Apapa Area 1 Command as the Customs Area Controller, Alhaji Suleiman Idris has been meeting with stakeholders. Recently, it was the turn of members of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) It was an event which gave both parties an opportunity to rub mind on many issues. Roland Ekama was there for Shipping Position Weekly and he reported that the parley was very fruitful for both parties. Excerpts.
Why I Am Meeting With The Press
Since he was posted to Apapa Area 1 Command as the Customs Area Controller, Alhaji Suleiman Idris has been meeting with stakeholders. Recently, it was the turn of members of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) It was an event which gave both parties an opportunity to rub mind on many issues. Roland Ekama was there for Shipping Position Weekly and he reported that the parley was very fruitful for both parties. Excerpts.
Why I Am Meeting With The Press
There is no organisation or institution that can do well without a good name, we all have a name and nobody wants his name to be dragged into the mud because he knows other people has laboured to train him and bring him up very well. On that basis, our image as Customs officers is very important because if we have to do Customs business the way it should be done, you will agree with me that we are going to step on other peoples’ toes and if it does not go down well with them, then we are going to have opposition; stiff opposition and when that happens, people want to go to the press because that is the arena where people want public opinion on their side. We all know that when people feel aggrieved they will want to channel it to the press .More so, under democracy, when we are talking about the rule of law, we have three types of government, we have the executive, legislature and the judiciary and the fourth is the press and what does the press do, it acts as a referee in a democratic system of government; the whistle serves as your publication. And that is why we say that: for the good image of Nigeria Customs Service and for your constitutional role as watchdog in a democracy, we say your own institution is most important; the Nigeria Customs Service cannot do without good image. The Comptroller General of Customs is always on his toes when anything that will give negative publicity to the Nigeria Customs Service is concerned. This been the case, every other customs officer must emulate the goodwill of the Comptroller General in trying to give the Nigeria Customs Service a very good corporate image. That is the reason why I will say that I am also duty bound to emulate the CG Customs in view of what I said earlier on .So my own mission here is to extend that hand of friendship and to collapse bridges or barriers that may exist. My mission here today is to let you know that if there anything that is good that we are doing in the interest of this country, please help us to tell the whole world that what we are doing is right, but if you find anything negative that is not of the interest of this country in what we do, please refer it to me because I am there to correct it because you will agree with me ,information dissemination is power; the one who knows first is the one that is knowledgeable. I want you to believe that I am part of the correction team, I align myself with the spirit of Comptroller General that we are all out to correct those things that we feel are working against Nigeria Customs Service’s image and we cannot do it by ourselves, we cannot do it as customs officers alone, so we need friends and the constitution has provided for us these friends and this friends are the press and that is why I am where today.
Tell us about your report card since you came on board?
I resumed duty in Apapa command on the 31st of January ,I actually took over on the 1st of February and I was so blessed that my coming coincided with the coming of the Comptroller General of the Service to Lagos Zone and Apapa was the first port of call; being the flagship of the Nigeria Customs Service. So, my first assignment was to receive the Comptroller General and what did he come to do? It’s the stakeholders’ forum, what is that stakeholders’ forum about? The Comptroller General wanted trade facilitation as he was not certified with the state of affairs in the ports; he wanted to meet all the stakeholders who are operating in the seaports so as to confirm from them what is actually happening in the port. He wanted to see what is happening in the port and in Apapa port specifically. We have series of problems and challenges, we itemized them, and we arrived at resolutions which we communicated to every stakeholder for implementation. One of the resolutions is that since Nigeria Customs Service is to facilitate trade, stakeholders must meet every month, including the security agents. And to the glory of God, we have met with all the government security agencies to discuss the implementation of the resolutions and all of us have resolved to implement them. We have started implementing them successfully and as a result of that, the aspiration of the CG is now being achieved, because flow of cargoes in Apapa has tremendously changed and because issues like joint examination to be a one stop shop has commenced and any government agency which allows itself to be left out of joint examination will no longer have right to do so and we have told all that are concerned that examination is one stop shop, so any one who did not come to work or is not represented because he does not have enough workforce or his work force is not prompt or they have left their duty point without any valid reason, we cannot examine severally. Once examination is done, there is no room for another examination again.
What problems are you facing with respect to scanning?
We are having problem with scanning, we have problems with space, we are having problems with congestion because the declarants are not compliant; now we made propositions to the government and government has approved pre -scanning of containers. At a meeting with stakeholders, Cotecna who is the service provider and APM Terminal are now mandated to initiate pre- scanning with effect from the 28th of March, these containers will be scanned on arrival before they are stacked at the terminals; even if declarations are made, so before a cargo arrives, they will go into the manifest they will profile the box together inside that manifest and be ready for scanning. Once a cargo arrives, before it is stacked, they will scan, they will bring the containers and scan them before they are stacked, so by the time the declarant makes his declaration then they will recall the image ,do the image analysis and anyone that is certified for releases they will release. Which means that the truck will come in after release has been given which means the issue of congestion, the issue of waiting or the issue of waiting for query when a container is being suspected will not arise and any container that is loaded, is loaded because it has been scanned and certified for release, but those ones that are suspect will be held until they are physically examined. But any container with query must be physically examined in order to determine what is there so those ones will not be released until they are physically examined before they will be released and then they will come and take delivery. This is starting on the 28th of March, but before then, we have agreed in- house that anybody who has a cargo which is five containers and it is homogeneous , we are going to approve re- routing the cargo to physical examination because of the problem in the scanning area, so we have done this. We expect that by the 28th of March, this problem of delay in scanning will come to an end because pre- scanning will take effect.
What Is The Agreement With Other Government Agencies?
We have told all the unit heads that the declarant has a right of appeal when queries that are raised borders on classifications, if there is ambiguity, there is need for appeal to go from Apapa to ‘T and T’ headquarters, it can go to the Minister of Finance from Minister of finance it can even go to Brussels which is world headquarters for determination and we are also persuaded to carry the same from other countries to WCO, we are also persuaded because it has effect on us so we have agreed in –house. Where we have problem is that sometimes, if there is query and officers want to collect duty, they will now go into the system and re-access this query when this re- assessment is done, the declarant cannot get release until the correction has been effected because it is a computer you have already referred it until payment is effected.
What about the command’s Revenue profile since you assumed office as the controller?
I came to the command and I started work on February 1, as at January, the revenue of the command was N14.01billion but by February, the command recorded N19.4billion as revenue, which is about N1.4Billion above our monthly target .We could not have done this without people, we could not have done this without the encouragement of the Comptroller General because he started it all. It was because headquarters was serious about it, they came and met the people and asked the people and we met in- house to discuss measures whereby we collectively work together with you. So I attribute this success to the grace of God for giving us the opportunity to do it and then to the Comptroller General for the support and he initiated stakeholders forum whereby every stakeholders was made to believe that he belong to the system, every stakeholder was made to believe that. So, when we mobilise the people we can get whatever we want from them and it is the collective effort of people that can build this country you will agree with me and my own understanding of it that nobody should be left out and as Customs officer and as a Customs Area Controller in charge of Apapa, it is my believe that both revenue collection and the curtailing of smuggling, implementation of government fiscal policy also the trade facilitation must be encouraged. In a nutshell, this is our report card and like I said ,what ever we do that is good, help us to tell the world but if you see anything wrong with us come to us, because there is still room for improvement and you know only God is prefect we are human beings and I want you to appreciate our job as tax collectors .The rich does not want anybody who is a tax collector ,nobody want to pay tax; include everyone of us here .That is why we need you- the press we have to partner with you make our case to you ,you must understand us clearly so that when anything goes wrong, can come to clarify any information and I assure you 100% that we are available for that because we are aware ,our own is public service.
Even with the scanning of container of homogenous goods, there are still delays at the port and what is the nature of the scanner?
The issue of scanning is that of the environment ,the scanners are prefect , Cotecna scanners are alright, they have no technical problem and also the people operating the scanners are well trained; both the customs officers and the Cotecna team; though we are operating under destination inspection scheme which was signed by the federal Ministry of Finance and the service providers this service providers are Cotecna,Globalscan and SGS with the software and hard ware assistance they are contracted by the Federal ministry of Finance to modernize the Nigeria Customs service; all operations are expected to be electronic at the end of the contract and the end of the contract is December 2012 which is about one year and nine months from now. The problem of space was created by APMT, that is the terminal operator and you will agree with me that if containers are stacked, they will line up and you know the numbers of containers that come out of the wharf. The problem of large number of truck is there ,the problem of people who crowd the place is also there and all these brought about congestion and delay, and also as a result scanning. It is not that the scanner is faulty, it is not that we do not have the man power but it is an environmental problem, because some of the challenges are that the vehicles that even enter the place will break down there and they have to look for mechanic; that is the kind of things that happens there, that is what is causing the delay on the issue containers. That’s why once we have problem of compliance, we cannot facilitate trade and you will agree with me that nobody will benefit from it, it is a mistake ,nobody will make a mistake and benefit from it .All we are talking about right here is to enable me to collect revenue for government ,what I am saying is that Deputy controller and Assistant Controllers by the nature of their rank has put more years in the service and when they retired they are expecting benefit from the government; more so, they have been doing the job for years, they say experience is the best teacher.
Most area controllers are not comfortable with alert in Apapa, why?
Anytime there is any forum with the clearing agent, importers or the manufacturer s, they speak about alert; the alert will be so many because compliance is very low. The alert may come from different government agencies who want Nigeria Customs Service to intervene and not allow a cargo to leave until it is sure and if the declarant is on- line, he can make declarations though there is fear due to the fact that there is no physical control that the goods might be released and after all the result have been done. The compliant level of the importers is being profiled and that is enriching the risk platform that will determine who are the ones that are compliant, those ones who do not get alert definitely are the ones that are compliant, so the system is now being loaded with those that are compliant and those that are not compliant and is an in- built way whereby the system will identify those importers that are compliant so that their future declarations will go to the green lane and it is a new system that we are operating. All these things are there, but first we need to facilitate trade like I said and that is what made the Comptroller General to come, when these complaints were so many. These alerts are so many alerts and compliance level is low and security has to be taken into consideration and hence you have all these alerts.
How are you going to fortify the public relations department?
We will partner with you in that area, we have been discussing with the P.R.O as I settled down, now that things have improved and the human traffic of consultations has reduced now, we want to enforce our structures and definitely the PRO will play a key role, we will relate better with you through him.
Since you came to this command what have you discovered as the peculiarity with Apapa port?
Apapa is big, then you will have the good, bad and the ugly and that is what I have been trying to do here, trying to explain to you the good, the bad and the ugly so that you can see the both sides. Anyone who has a large family in this part of the world is seen as a big man, because he is blessed with human resources, but he will be looking at you may be because you have one wife and less children, so it’s a variant it’s a mixed grill. That is why I say we will partner with you, the stakeholder and government. Out there in Apapa everybody want to go away with his interest even if it is arms and ammunition or cocaine, even if he did not pay kobo when he is supposed to pay he will know how to go because he wants to maximize his profit that is capitalism for you .NAFDAC is there, but still some people bring in fake drugs. Nobody ever like tax collectors, it is there in the Bible. Even the good ones are difficult to manage because if you are to collect duty that are correct, there will still be trade facilitation that is what they contend with in other jurisdiction, there will still be the problem of trade facilitation and how you are able to effectively reduce cargo dwell time; it will still be there no to talk about those who don’t want to pay.
Cotecna has expressed worries that most of the cargo in Apapa port still go for 80% physical examination, what is your take on this?
With what I have said, selectivity engine is right it will select the risk according to compliance, so if the records that were brought by the importer will now show all that is needed, and they have not been compliant, then it has to go for physical examination because it is high risk .If there is intervention; maybe by NAFDAC or SSS that it suspects, then it has to go for physical examination. There has to be that intervention to make it physical, so all these things combined together cause physical examination. Most of the containers are not compliant that is why most of the declaration are re-routed to physical examination and it is done by the system ,it is the selectivity engine ,the only intervention is that if there is need; if there is security issue, then there has to be intervention and how many times, it is only twice that we have had such intervention.
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