Senate: NPA Deceived Minister, Minister Deceived FEC
NPA, Perm Sec: No, CTN Passed Due Process The on- going controversies over the introduction of Cargo Tracking Note (CTN) snowballed into a drama, last week, at the Senate as committee on marine transport headed by Senator Gbemi Saraki accused the Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA) of deliberately misleading the supervisory ministry of transport which in turn misled the Federal Executive Council (FEC) into granting approval for the contentious policy.
Apparently worried by the barrage of criticisms that the CTN has attracted since January 11, 2010 when it was introduced following an earlier FEC approval and since Shipping Position Weekly also scooped the story in its January 10 to 16, 2010 edition, the committee had invited all parties to the controversy to a round table in Abuja last week.
Not satisfied with the explanations that were given by the NPA managing director Malam Abdusallam Mohammed as to how the CTN came to be, the chair of the committee, Senator Saraki, 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”. “The presentation made to the federal executive council was misleading”. According to her, “NPA misled the Federal Ministry of Transport and the ministry in turn misled the Federal Executive Council into approving the CTN.
Saraki, who was obviously reacting to the string of opposition that was exhibited by virtually all the stakeholders at the meeting and the barrage of petitions which the committee had received on the CTN, requested that both the ministry and NPA should accept responsibilities for “misleading the Federal Executive Council in approving the now controversial Cargo Tracking Note (CTN)”.
Speaking in the same vein, the duo of Senators Ayogu Eze and Tafida Argungu questioned the modalities for operating CTN, but, they were more 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 wanted an answer is why the ministry should consider a proposal on CTN from TPMS alone without allowing bids from other companies.
Responding to the ‘attacks’ from the lawmakers, both the managing director of NPA and the permanent secretary in the ministry of transport Dr Edugie Abebe explained that the contract followed due process and that "the CTN has no additional cost implication on government and shippers."
According to her, “the issue of CTN is undergoing review in the ministry and it is a top priority of the ministry”.
And similarly justifying the introduction of the levy, the NPA boss affirmed that the policy was approved by FEC in December 2009 and that after then, the agency held series of meetings with concerned stakeholders such as: Shipping Association of Nigeria, NACCIMA, MAN and freight forwarders.
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