Senate Committee On Finance Frowns At Underutilisation of SGS Scanners In Port Harcourt

The Senate committee on Finance has frowned at the low level performance of the scanning equipment provided by one of service provider; SGS at the Nigerian Customs Area 1 Command in Port Harcourt describing the facilities as underutilized.
Even as the committee commended the service provider on the state- of- the -art scanners last week, it was also obvious that the equipment has not yielded much in the area of revenue collection for the Federal Government.

The Senate committee on Finance has frowned at the low level performance of the scanning equipment provided by one of service provider; SGS at the Nigerian Customs Area 1 Command in Port Harcourt describing the facilities as underutilized.
Even as the committee commended the service provider on the state- of- the -art scanners last week, it was also obvious that the equipment has not yielded much in the area of revenue collection for the Federal Government.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi who led the delegation to the Port Harcourt port, last week disclosed this even as he stressed that the service provider has the state of the art scanning facility provided at the port, but the level of   usage is not encouraging.
 The Senator also said that there is need for the scanning facility to be effective, in order to generate revenue for federal government.
“We are here to see things for ourselves, to see the level of compliance by SGS for the last seven years”, the Senate Committee Chairman stated.
He said that with the handing over deadline in June this year, the committee wants to ascertain Customs preparedness to take over destination inspection.
Senator Markirfi said that the Senate Committee members are ascertaining the readiness of Nigeria Customs Service, which he said will help Senators determine the passage of the CEMA bill pending at the Senate.
Speaking earlier, the Customs Area Controller of Area 1, Command, NCS, Kuffi DG explained that the problem contributing to the low utility of the scanner facility could be attributed to the agent, whom he said undervalue their goods.
He also blamed the trend to what he called disparity in charges between Lagos Ports and Port Harcourt Ports.
In his remark, the Zonal Controller of Customs, Dr David Agbaje said that the under utilization of the facility is as a result of low container operations at the Port Harcourt Ports.