Customs, DSS and NQS, hinders trade facilitation —Broker

CG Col Hameed Ali

A Customs broker and chieftain of Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents, Joe Sanni, has accused the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, the Department of State Services, DSS and the Nigerian Quarantine Service, NQS, of hindering trade facilitation at the nation’s seaports.

Sanni noted that the three government agencies deliberately delay cargoes at the port, especially Tin-can Island, Lagos, which is a case in point, to force the importer and their agents to get monetary gratification.

According to him, “Right from that point threats of a Demand Notice, DN, are made to the broker. By merely stating that “your cargo is 20 percent instead of five percent,” without correlating it with an acceptable HS Code, (The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, also known as the Harmonized System) results into pleadings by the agent/broker, who, because of lack of knowledge/capacity acquiesces to the position of the customs officer, who most likely, may not be able to defend his/her pronouncements/position.

“Added to this is the mode of operations of the Customs Intelligence Unit, CIU, whose original mandate is to operate incognito. But, from my proven observations, CIU acts as the overlord at examination bays. They participate actively in cargo examination, and their report supersedes the report of the examiner and chief examiner/releasing officer. This is an abnormality that should be discontinued, because it is fraught with a lot of indiscretions, unintelligent decisions and a threat to the espirit d’corp of Nigeria Customs Service.

“One thing to note here is that valuation units and Q & A are not part of examination. Therefore, they rely mostly on jaundiced report of CIU to raise queries, which are not captured in the inspection act of the chief examiner.

“The CIU is the cause of all these delays, which end up in extortions, because of their widely circulated reports, which get to the CGC’s office in Abuja. Again, because of the palpable fear of the new CGC, no one is prepared to do his or her job, despite being convinced of what they have examined, simply because the CIU holds a contrary opinion.”

He noted that the resident officer would not challenge whatever is presented by the CIU operates because they do not want to be seen as going against the Service, since the report of the CIU get directly to the office of the Comptroller General of Customs, CGC.

In his words, “Another set of agencies that constitute a clog in the trade facilitation wheel is the government agencies especially the DSS and the quarantine services. They are very notorious in Tin Can Port command.

“The government agencies – especially the DSS are supposed to gather intelligence on cargoes carrying offensive materials detrimental to the Nigerian State, and not to forcefully extort money from hapless brokers at the examination base, and in their offices.”