Blame Game

Presidnet Goodluck Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan blames budget deficits on revenue leakages at the ports and border posts
By Stephen Ubanna
President Goodluck Jonathan has blamed the yearly deficits in government budget on revenue leakages at the ports and border posts.
Speaking at a lecture on government transformation agenda in Abuja recently, the President promised to deal with the situation decisively.
“If we have well managed ports alone, the income we receive as a government from trading activities will be enough but we are still running deficit budgets because things are not done properly at the ports”, the president said.
Following the rot at the ports which was eating deep into government budgets, former President Olusegun Obasanjo introduced ‘Destination Inspection’ in 2006 where goods and import declarations are inspected on arrival in the country. The former President had introduced the scheme because of allegations that importers and government officials connive in falsifying ships manifests and inflating the amount of goods purchased.
Going by government calculation, the scheme is expected to clear the rot at the ports through improved import clearance processes and optimise the collection of import duties and taxes. This is in addition to detection of under declaration, fraudulent transactions and illegal cargo.
Investigation by The Source shows that from 2006 when the scheme was introduced, not much has changed at the ports and border posts.
The Service providers contracted to carry out Destination Inspection at the ports are Societe Generale de Survellance, SGS, Cotecna and Globalscan Systems Limited while Webfontaine, an information technology company was contracted to be in-charge of uploading and managing the process on-line.
Port-Harcourt main Port, Airport and Onne Port in Rivers state and Idiroko border post in Ogun state were put under the control and management of SGS while Apapa Port, Tincan Island Port in Lagos state, Abuja International Airport, Kano Airport and Jibya border post in Katsina state were placed under the control of Cotecna.
Globalscan Systems Limited, an indigenous service provider had the responsibility to oversee Calabar Port in Cross River state, Warri Port in Delta state, Murtala Mohammed Internationl Airport, Lagos, and Seme border post.
Industry stakeholders observed that President Jonathan has every reason to lament the rot at the ports and border posts.
Investigation by the magazine shows that from Calabar Port, Onne, Apapa, Tincan, Seme to Jibya border post, the story of falsifying ships manifests, under declaration to under-payment abound.
An agent who spoke to the magazine on condition of anonymity disclosed that the Customs resort to physical examination of Containers at the Ports and trucks at the border posts have not helped matters as it offers more opportunity to indulge in underhand deals.
The Source findings shows that the government loses over N30 billion monthly from the various revenue leakages at the ports and border posts. A source in Ministry of Finance revealed that importers and agents use forged bank revenue receipts and fake payment slips with the connivance of Customs officials to defraud the government.
Many believe that if Customs officers at reconciliation points are alive to their duties as expected, revenue loss by the government at the ports and border posts would have been stopped.
Olayiwola Shittu, President, Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, opined that government has its own share of the blame. He said government indiscriminate granting of waivers to agencies, contractors and suppliers is a major source of loss of revenue. Aliyu Mustapha, a former Comptroller-General of the Customs lamented in 2002 lamented that several billions of naira are lost at the ports and border posts on the strength of duty exemption and other charges.
The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS ,Trade Liberalisation Scheme, ETLS, according to industry stakeholders, is another major source of revenue loss at the ports and border posts.
Importers using the ETLS to bring in goods into the country, the Magazine was told, defraud the government. For instance, in the first half of the year, Badagry/Seme area Command cleared 454 trucks of ECOWAS compliant goods at a Cost Insurance Freight, CIF, value of N4.11 billion . It was learnt that N38.99 million which represents one percent of the Free on Board, FOB , was realised as revenue while the revenue loss as a result of the scheme stood at N1.14 billion. The story is the same at Jibya, Maidugiri, and Idiroko border posts, Apapa, Tincan Island and Onne ports where several billions have also been lost through the Scheme, industry stakeholders further said.
A source in Customs Headquarters confirmed that past and present Administrations of the Customs have made efforts to stop all the official sources like waivers and ETLS, where government has been losing revenue but were frustrated at the ministerial level.Industry watchers advised Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, Minister of Finance to review the waiver policy to save money for the government while the Customs should be strengthened to do their jobs properly at the ports and border posts.