The Port Industry Anti-Corruption Standing Committee (PIACSC) was created some years back as an immediate fall-out of a stakeholders’ forum that was organized by the Port Consultative Council (PCC). So far, it has had three helmsmen; including the incumbent coordinator; Mrs Enochie Ogenyi and the pioneer chairman being Mr Val Usifoh who was succeeded by late Alhaji Sulaiman Hameen who died a few months ago.
No doubt, the committee has done well to wage war against the menace of corruption, but the damning verdict which was given recently by the committee’s new coordinator is the hardest so far in its history.
Mrs Ogenyi, had at a meeting between the PIACSC and Anti- Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) of the various government agencies operating in the port stated unequivocally that the nation’s seaports are still bedeviled by “cumbersome and multiple points of documentation at the port, usage of fake clearing documents, concealment, over or under invoicing, short payment of customs duty and port charges”, even as she pointed out that “there is still touting among unlicensed and fake freight forwarders as well as multiple checkpoints even after a consignment has left the ports.”
Perhaps, it was her assessment of the efficiency of the ACTUs that gave a clearer pointer as to why the ports are still the way they are. She had lampooned some of the ACTU members of the various government agencies operating in the port and accused them of not been up to date and not forth-coming with their quarterly reports to the committee and the ICPC to work with. Ogenyi also said the most obvious when she lamented that even though Nigerian ports are regarded as the gateway to the Nigerian economy, they are haven for corrupt practices.
Mrs Ogenyi’s submission is however different from that of one of her predecessors in office (Mr Val Usifoh) who had in one of his interactions with us argued that the nation’s seaports are no longer as corrupt as they were some years ago. He had attributed the improvement to port concession and argued that the involvement of the private sector in port operations has curbed personal contacts between port users and port service providers.
To some extent one can argued that the level of corruption has reduced, but that does not remove the kernel of Mrs Ogenyi’s verdict that the Nigerian port system remains the most corrupt system in the country.
The 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: Nigerian Ports Authority, Terminal Operators,Nigeria Customs Service, and its service providers, shipping agents, Standards Organisation of Nigeria,(SON), National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, (NAFDAC, importers (big and small), licensed customs agents, dockworkers, truck owners, drivers and their motor boys.
Corruption which is earned Nigerian port system and its players a very negative rating on the corruption perception index is (in most cases) engineered from the point at which a consignment is procured and what eventually plays itself out in the ports is the implementation stage.
Corruption starts from when an importer defies import guidelines and import prohibition orders of the federal government. This premeditated action puts the licensed customs agent at the mercy of officials of government agencies.
For those who still nurse slight hope that the state of decay in the ports is being exaggerated, let’s look into this together: The first thing that happens once a ship comes into the harbours is that officials of government agencies; notably, the Nigeria Immigration Service and Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) go on board. Curiously, the officials board the ships empty- handed, but they 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.
We had thought that the introduction of Customs ASYCUDA and its subsequent upgrade and the hand-over port operations will lead to eradication if not total elimination of corruption in the port, but this is not to be as confirmed by the coordinator of PIACSC recently.
The numerous anti-corruption committees in the port and the various in-house committees within the agencies have not done enough in the fight against corruption. No doubt, the Port Industry Anti- Corruption Standing Committee has discharged its duties creditably, but, we dare say that other corruption monitoring units; including the ones being promoted by the Customs, NPA and NIMASA only exist on paper.
We have our reservations about one of the resolutions of the PIACSC and ACTUs meeting to the effect that, henceforth there should be joint inspection of cargoes by all the relevant agencies at the port including SON, NAFDAC, NDLEA, Nigeria Customs Service and SSS.
In the past it is this practice that breeds corruption, what is the duty of these agencies with cargo examination. The exercise of cargo examination is the prerogative of Customs which may invite any agency as at when required, to make these agencies to become a regular face at the examination bays is to continue to provide a fertile ground for corruption in the port system .
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