CARGO TRACKING NOTE AGAIN!

After a little silence occasioned by protests by stakeholders, the controversial Cargo Tracking Note (CTN) is back in the news; no thanks to the recent directive by the managing director, Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA), Omar Suleiman that collection should commence on February 14, 2011.
And apparently not happy with shipping companies for choosing to flagrantly disobey an earlier directive that was given by his predecessor, the new NPA boss has now threatened that any shipping line which fails to ensure that CTN is collected on all incoming cargoes will pay a 100 per cent fine.
The managing director had written to the shipping lines that: “Pursuance to the enforcement circular issued earlier, notice is hereby given that effective 14/2/11, all shipments not covered by CTN will attract 100 per cent penalty payable by the carrier. Please note and ensure strict compliance”.
This is the second time after the CTN was introduced in December 2009 and enforcement flagged-off in January,2010 that NPA would be at the mercy of the carriers under the aegis of Shipping Association of Nigeria (SAN) over the implementation of CTN.
Alluding to the non-cooperation on the part of the multinational carriers, Suleiman had lamented that despite the Federal Executive Council’s directive for the implementation of CTN in January and NPA’s enforcement notice that was issued on October 20, 2010 the rate of compliance by shippers has been very low.
If there is any policy in the maritime sector that has been so vilified, it is the CTN, even though, NPA had at the on-set of CTN collection in January, 2010 highlighted the benefit of the CTN to include: the control of freight charges; ability to access advance information on all cargoes which made actual advance billing possible; introduction of one point payment system that reduced time and energy in clearing goods, thereby making a less-than-24 hour clearing possible.
Others include accessibility to real time on line central information that makes statistics for decision making possible on a real time basis rather than historical basis; having information on cargo before it is even on the vessel; improvement on the security of port infrastructure, vessels and personnel; certification of ports by the USA and European nations and the Green Status given to port infrastructure, vessel; and accruable value added benefits to the national economy.
All these did not appear to have impressed the Nigerian importing community which is the one to pay the levy, and they have persistently refused to comply; albeit with the backing of the shipping lines which had also openly kicked against it.
Apparently worried by the barrage of criticisms that the CTN has attracted since January 2010, the Senate committee on marine transport had last year invited all parties to the controversy to a ‘round table’ at the National Assembly.

Not satisfied with the explanations that were given by the then- managing director, NPA, Malam Abdusallam Mohammed as to how the CTN came to be, the chair of the committee Senator Saraki had alleged that the decision to embrace CTN was based on false information and wrong advice to the government. The CTN is operated in Nigeria by Transport and Ports Monitoring Service (TPMS).

She accused both the ministry and NPA of misleading the Federal Government, stressing that “FEC approved the scheme based on the recommendation from the NPA and the Ministry of Transport that its implementation in Nigeria will add no cost to shippers and government. But what we are seeing is different from what FEC approved”.
Speaking in the same vein the duo of Senators Ayogu Eze and Tafida Argungu questioned the modalities for operating CTN, but, they were moiré concerned with what they referred to as non-inclusion of projected revenue from CTN in the NPA budget proposal for 2010.
Eze had queried the modus operandi for the introduction of CTN and submitted that the policy did not follow due process, even as he pointed at the lapses between the Ministry of Transport and NPA. He also insisted that the process through which the memo got FEC approval was questionable.
Another area which Saraki had sought answer is why the ministry should consider a proposal on CTN from TPMS alone without allowing bids from other companies.

The Senate thereafter in its recommendations called for a stoppage to the CTN levy and also stated that should government be interested in reintroducing the levy, it should engage more than one collecting agent.

But, the question is: why have ship owners refused to enforce compliance by insisting that all cargoes coming kin board their ships must carry the CTN? The answer is simple: CTN lacks legitimacy. Why did the Senate recommend that the monopoly of TPMS should be broken? The answer is: because the process leading to the emergence of the company and the flag-off of collection lacked popularity and negated due process.

However, since it already has FEC approval, the best that can be done is to fine-tune the process and make it more opened, it is also possible to bring in more collectors.

A lot more also needs to be done about the use to which the proceeds will be put to. Funds from CTN levy should be used to improve on the level of standards of port infrastructures; especially the common user facilities provision of adequate security at the various approaches.