Oluyinka Onigbinde
Stakeholders in the nation’s maritime industry have again called on the Federal Government to investigate the Nigeria Customs Service’s (NCS) e-auction, even as they also alleged lack of transparency in the process through which vehicles and other goods are supposedly auctioned electronically.
The stakeholders alleged that the platform is a scam, used by men of the NCS to enrich themselves, noting that the platform lacks transparency. They added that the Customs e-auction could be described as dead.
According to them, the NCS only put up a bidding process when they desire, even when the vehicle or consignment had already been allocated to a preferred bidder.
Recall that during a press conference which was held at the Customs headquarters in Abuja on the 3rd of July, 2017, the Customs Comptroller General, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), unveiled the electronic auction facility, also known as e-auction and called on interested Nigerians to take advantage of it.
Ali had said the e-auction initiative was part of efforts by the Service to eliminate the sharp practices that had characterized the manual auction system, as well as grow its revenue generation capacity.
He had added that officers of the NCS are excluded from participating in the electronic auction and that owners of the seized item are also excluded from bidding for them.
In August 2020, the NCS said it auctioned 314 vehicles through its E-Auction platform, adding that the total reserved bid amount was N87.9 million while the total bid amount paid was about N151 million.
However, stakeholders who spoke to Shipping Position Daily last week lamented that the e-auction system has not been transparent, alleging that it is just a platform used by the Customs to share seized items among their cronies.
Speaking with our correspondent, the National Secretary of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Mr. Babatunde Mukaila described the platform as a scam, questioning why the NCS will be the judge and a jury over its matter.
He queried why the e-auction was not given to certify licensed auctioneers in the country to handle.
He said, “I want to believe the e-auction is a scam, it’s a scam because there are certified auctioneers, Customs cannot continue to be the judge and the jury in their own case, you can’t seize a cargo and be the one to auction it.
“If they want to be transparent and serious, let them get the Association of Licensed Auctioneers to do it in a way that is internationally best known, so Customs can’t be a judge and a jury because it will end up being a scam, so it’s a scam. I don’t know when Customs officers were trained to be an auctioneer in their own case” he said.
Speaking also, a former Public Relations Officer of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Stanley Ezenga alleged lack of transparency in the process of auctioning.
He said; “When the e-auction was introduced, we welcomed it wholeheartedly, because we believed that it will ensure more transparency and improve revenue on the part of government, and anytime there is going to be an auction they will always advertise, but we found out that most often than not, most people overbid those vehicles that are for sale and in that process they abandoned it after they must have won the bids to purchase the vehicle.
“By the time you go for inspection of the vehicle you bidded for, you will find out that what you bidded for was a scrap, so most people who won the bidding don’t really go for it at the end of the day.
“Another thing is that most of the vehicles that are being auctioned are old and rickety, whereas we know that Customs seize exotic cars, we see the cars they confiscated, but unfortunately when it’s time for e-auction, you will only discover that it is only old vehicles that will be available on the platform.
“So you begin to wonder when and how they sold those exotic cars, so I think I share the same view with the people who believed that the e-auction is a scam and it is dead, because we only hear but, we don’t see.
“I am of the opinion that the e-auction should be looked into with a view to having transparency and making it work”, he said.
Also speaking with our correspondent, a freight forwarder, Mr. Dele Olagunju alleged lack of transparency in the system of auctioning of seized items, he alleged that senior officers of the NCS auction these vehicles and other goods to themselves and thereafter sell them out.
He said, “I understand that in some border commands such as Idiroko, Seme and some other northern parts, they do e-auction in those places manually and they do it in secrecy, the unfortunate thing is that this CG doesn’t know anything about Customs, the government just put him there to generate revenue for federal government”.
“All he wants is that money should just come in from each command at the expense of the importers and the freight forwarders.
“Now these vehicles are auctioned in piecemeal and auctioned to themselves, now we the freight forwarders or whoever wants to get these vehicles will now have to get it from them and you can’t even get it unless you have connections, that’s what they’ve been doing.
“Even sometimes when your container has entered overtime cargoes for about six or seven years, you can go to Abuja, find somebody who can help you they will now re-auction it back to you as the owner, so everything going on about the e-auction is a scam, whoever tells you it is a scam is not micing words, the e-auction is a scam, there’s no transparency at all”, he stated.
Confirming allegations of manual auctioning of goods at some commands, the acting President Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Dr. Kayode Farinto said he was recently informed that manual auctioning of vehicles take place at Ikorodu, he although could not confirm the allegation.
He said an ANLCA member confirmed that about 70 vehicles were auctioned manually at the Ikorodu Customs warehouse recently.
“If you want to talk about Custom e-auction, I know that the last management team spoke about e-auction and that’s what they are trying to preach and we have been waiting for them, we have not seen any e-auction, one of my (ANLCA) chairmen called me from Ikorodu and he said he saw 70 vehicles auctioned manually”, he added.
