The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) says Global Scansystems; one of the Destination Inspection agencies has failed to deliver on its contract with the Federal Government.
Public Relations Officer of Customs; Mr Wale Adeniyi made the allegation in a statement made available to newsmen in Lagos on yesterday.
The Federal Government, had in 2005, engaged four companies on destination inspection programme on Build- Own- Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis.
The contract was for seven years to provide the required infrastructure.
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) says Global Scansystems; one of the Destination Inspection agencies has failed to deliver on its contract with the Federal Government.
Public Relations Officer of Customs; Mr Wale Adeniyi made the allegation in a statement made available to newsmen in Lagos on yesterday.
The Federal Government, had in 2005, engaged four companies on destination inspection programme on Build- Own- Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis.
The contract was for seven years to provide the required infrastructure.
The contract expired in December 2012 and was extended for six months to end in June.
Under the current arrangement, the NCS is to take over the destination inspection from July 1.
Adeniyi recalled that Globalscan was allotted Seme Border, Ports of Calabar, Warri and Port Harcourt as well as International Airports in Lagos and Port Harcourt.
He said that one of the obligations of Global Scansystems was the installation of fixed scanner in Seme Border and mobile ones at the other sites.
Adeniyi said, in addition to this, customs officers were to be trained on operation and maintenance of the scanners during the contract period.
He alleged that Global Scansystems did not start construction at Seme border site until about two years ago and that nearly all the mobile scanners supplied had serious operations and maintenance issues.
According to him, “several audit and assessment reports from Accenture, World Bank and Oversight Committees of the National Assembly were unsparing in their indictment of Globalscan’s shoddy handling of its sites.
“In 2012, NCS carried out its own audit supported by a team of consultants.
“The exercise showed a pitiful state of equipment performance, availability, safety and maintenance compounded by very poor facilities for staff.
“The fixed scanner expected to have been delivered half way into the contract period is still under construction, seven years after,” he said.
Adeniyi said that there was no documented case of cancer caused by the use of these scanners anywhere in the World.
He said that the scanners had multiple fail-safe systems to ensure that it could not be operated in an unsafe environment.
He said that Globalscan would have safety questions to answer before handing over if the scanners sited at PTML, Warri and Calabar Customs Command were declared unsafe for any scanning activity.
Adeniyi said that customs service had developed its own sustainable scanner training capability and expert trainers.
He said that the NCS officers had undergone training courses in scanning and specific training for each functional role.
Adeniyi said that NCS had trained over 300 officers with one year experience in operating scanners.
“NCS have selected 20 officers to act as Radiation Protection Supervisors at each site.
“These Officers report to the NCS Radiation Safety Officer, who holds a MSc degree in Physics, and has over seven years’ experience with x-ray scanners.
“ All these officers are trained to international standards and qualified both from a UK Radiation Safety company and will be further trained and assessed by an NNRA approved establishment, ‘’Adeniyi said.
Adeniyi said that Globalscan had deterred the NCS from building its capacity to perform its statutory responsibility.
Globalscan had recently stirred controversies when its Managing Director ; Mr Fred Udechukwu, raised alarm that exposure of untrained hands to scanning machines could cause cancer.
Udechukwu had alleged that Customs had no competent hands to operate and maintain the scanning machines.
He alleged that all the efforts by the service providers to train the customs officers in this critical aspect of the contract proved abortive.
Udechukwu said that the company had so far trained 1,600 officers, adding that many of the officers were not trainable as they did not have the requisite background in engineering courses.
“If the scanners are left in the hands of customs after the exit of the service providers, Nigeria may witness unprecedented cases of cancer.
“The fixed scanner emits nine million volts of x-ray, which is the maximum allowed by the World Health Organisation, while the mobile scanner emits 3.8 million volts of x-ray.
“The x-ray being emitted by these machines cause cancer and you can imagine if they are left in the hands of the untrained and uncommitted people, ‘’ Udechukwu said.
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