The Nigerian port system comprises of a web of suppliers and users of shipping services on one side and suppliers and users of ancillary services on the other.
Spread across this winding and complex web are players such as: personnel of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Nigeria Customs Service and its service providers, terminal operators, shipping agents, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, importers (big and small), licensed customs agents, dockworkers, truck owners, drivers and motor boys, and many others.
It is difficult to ascertain the identity of those who perpetuate or initiate fraud in the port system, because the chain of importation is long; hence it can only be situated within the chain; that is, from the point an importer opens his ‘Letter of Credit’ to when the goods are actually procured and, packaged and freighted into Nigeria as an import and up to the point at which it is cleared from the port and delivered to the consignee.
In analysing the phenomenon called corruption in the port system, a lot of people tend to pin it down on stakeholders in the Nigerian port system, but that is an incorrect judgement.
Our findings have revealed that corruption is (in most cases) engineered from the point at which a consignment is procured. A situation when an importer defies import guidelines and import prohibition orders of the federal government makes the consignment and its importer susceptible. By implication, the licensed customs agent inherits the liability.
To ensure that the (offending) consignment is cleared out of the port, he (the clearing agent) begins to define ways and this means being at the mercy of officials of government agencies, notably Customs.
The notoriety and high rating which the Nigeria Customs Service enjoys on the corruption scale is not to say that other players are angels; virtually all the actors whom we have identified above are involved at one level or the other in making the port system what it is.
Stakeholders always rush to label customs personnel as the most corrupt, but as much as we do not want to draw a corruption perception table, we will like to look at them one after the other.
The first thing that happens once a ship comes into the harbours is that officials of government agencies; notably, the Nigeria Immigration Service go on board. Curiously, they board empty handed and disembark with loads of goodies including foreign drinks and other assorted items. That is the first act of corruption.
From that point, the terminal operator takes over and moves the consignments to designated storage facilities, while the importer or his licensed customs agents begins the process of taking delivery. From this moment, he is at the mercy of the container handler operator at the terminal, the Customs officer (and sometimes, the dockworker) at the terminal. If he is lucky and the container is not problematic, it may not be necessary to open his container for full examination; if this is so, he moves to the gate and still contends with a horde of agencies including the Police and the Customs who must again, vet the documents before the container exits.
All said, it is fact that the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) is the economic regulator of the nation’s seaports. By virtue of this responsibility, a lot is expected of it.
It is certainly in line with this, that the Port Standing Task Team (PSTT) was created by the Council, with full backing of the Ministry of Transportation.
And according to the Shippers Council, the PSST which is headed by Mr Moses Fadipe is focused on three cardinal areas, which are- joint vessel boarding, joint cargo examination and operation free port access roads.
Specifically, the PSST which is made up of officers of ICPC, NSC, NPA and the Directorate of State Services (DSS), was charged with the primary duty of ensuring that standard procedures were followed in carrying out transactions at the ports. The team is to strictly carry out necessary anti-corruption activities that would help dismantle the corruption network fuelling the traffic logjam within the port area.
It is also to carry out regular operations in the ports to generate evidence-based infractions against the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), the Nigerian Port Process Manual (NPPM) and the Ease of Doing Business policy of Federal Government.
We are quite alarmed at how the strategic intervention is being perceived by stakeholders and how PSST has performed its task, so far. The initial achievements recorded by the team appeared to validate its effectiveness in tackling the longstanding issue of endemic corruption in the ports.
Perhaps, like everything Nigeria, the PSST has started dropping the ball, and losing steam in the task of ensuring that the ports are ‘clean’ and devoid of any unwholesome act.
Even though it was expected to be a transformative fight against corruption at the nation’s ports, the PSST is now facing fierce criticisms from maritime industry stakeholders who allege that despite the intervention, corruption still thrives within the port system. This position resonates with us.
The PSTT, established with the grand promise of rooting out corruption at the ports and restoring transparency to maritime operations, initially received applause for its efforts as several high-profile arrests and convictions, the story is fast changing.
However, findings by this newspaper revealed that doubts have started to surface among the very stakeholders who had initially welcomed the PSTT’s formation and commended its efforts.
It appears as if truly, corruption networks that have been entrenched for years have started adapting and finding new ways to operate clandestinely.
We can not overlook the fact that the PSST has recorded some level of success in the ship boarding aspect of its operations, we are also aware that cargo examination is much better than what it used to be. But a lot still need to be done.
For the fight against corruption to succeed, a lot more collaboration is expected among the various government agencies, especially, NPA, Customs, NAFDAC, SON and the Police.
These are the frontline agencies, whose personnel interface and interact with critical stakeholders daily at different times and places at the ports. For success in the anti-corruption fight, the process of cargo clearance must be streamlined.
Above all, corruption does not fester where there is use of information technology. The way the nation’s ports are run encourages corruption. We are happy that the Nigerian Ports Authority has almost fully computerized its operations, especially tariffs and billing. We hope that the Customs will hasten up in its modernization efforts. It is also our hope that the Single Window project become a reality soon.
