Speed up disposal of overtime cargoes
It has come to light that the nation is losing huge revenues amounting to billions of naira as a result of non-disposal of overtime cargoes seized by the Nigeria Customs Service in the course of its operations. This is so because the manual auction process for the disposal of such cargoes lacks transparency and has […]
It has come to light that the nation is losing huge revenues amounting to billions of naira as a result of non-disposal of overtime cargoes seized by the Nigeria Customs Service in the course of its operations.
This is so because the manual auction process for the disposal of such cargoes lacks transparency and has been allegedly riddled with corruption. To curb this, the Comptroller General of Customs, Hameed Ali, in July 2017, introduced the electronic auction platform known as ‘’e-auction’’ to sanitise the system. Additionally, the Comptroller-General was compelled to introduce e-auction option in order to decongest the Customs warehouses across the country, which were overflowing with vehicles seized from smugglers at different entry points.
But the e-auction ran into some technical glitches and has since remained inoperable. Even before that occurrence, little progress was recorded in tackling the issue. For instance, before it went under and was eventually halted by the Customs Services, only 806 vehicles were uploaded on the platform with 753 bidders which generated a paltry N346.1 million.
As a result of the stoppage of the e-auction, warehouse at various Customs Commands both in the seaports and land borders are filled with seized vehicles amounting to over 70 billion naira. Indeed, the Customs warehouses are so full that the Customs Training College, Ikeja has been turned into an emergency warehouse in order to stock some of the seized vehicles.
The Comptroller General in his explanation said that seized vehicles must have to go through court process before they can be disposed. As this process usually takes longer time than necessary, the seized vehicles must have to remain at the warehouses.
While we have cause to understand the challenges being faced by the Customs Service on this issue, we however call on the Customs to seek more innovative ways of tackling it rather than allow it become another intractable issue for government. For instance, the Customs can engage in dialogue with the courts to try and explore the possibility of a special dispensation to fast track the process. The Customs can also approach the National Assembly and relevant agencies of government to enact laws and policies towards the speedy resolution of the issue.
As for the technical glitches, it is baffling that in this day and age where solutions to digital issues are readily available, the Customs has not been able to avail itself of this either locally or abroad. Whether it is in designing the relevant application or training of the staff to handle the e-auction platform, there can be no shortage or lack of the technical support that Customs can call on to run this process as efficiently desirable.
The Customs service should also need to understudy how their counterparts in other countries are handling similar issues and learn valuable implementable lessons from this inquiry. We are aware that by the nature of the interdependent nature of their activities, Customs services all over the world have a routine continuous collaborative engagement where innovations and ideas are exchanged. Our Customs Services need to take advantage of this platform to overhaul and improve their operations so as to keep in line with international best practices.
More than any agency of government, the Customs need to be sensitive about the government losing huge revenues through avoidable operational lapses. It is unfortunate and unacceptable that while the countries from where the seized cargoes have raked in huge revenues, Nigeria is denied the revenue that should come to it due to the lack of diligence in the operation of one of the major revenue generating agencies of government.