Destination inspection: Customs agents seek implementation committee
Following the extension of Destination Inspection (DI) by six months, the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA) has appealed to the Federal Government to constitute Transition Joint Implementation Committee (TJIC) comprising of stakeholders with required experience in import processes.
According to NCMDLCA, representatives of Presidential task force on reforms of customs (RCTFCR), Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and service providers should also form part of the proposed committee.
In a letter addressed to President Goodluck Jonathan and made available to The Guardian, NCMDLCA said the proposed committee should conduct joint inventory of equipment at scanners sites.
The letter signed by president of NCMDLCA, Lucky Amiwero urged members of the proposed committee to conduct operational audit to review progress and identify corrective actions.
The letter tagged: 'Re-Extension Of Destination Inspection (DI) Contract and Need to Constitute a Committee for Seamless Transfer,' according to Amiwero have been sent to the coordinating minister of the economy, minister of trade and investment, the CBN governor and the secretary to the Government of the Federation.
It called for inventory taking at area command locations of equipments, provision of soft/hard copy documentation on equipment technical manuals, configuration passwords of equipments, inventory of bore-hole equipment, hard/soft copy of site sketches, furniture, air conditioners and generating sets.
Explaining further, NCMDLCA called for the physical handover of training modules, telecom, information technology based equipments, maintenance procedure on all buildings, air conditioners, generators, help desk, workstation, electronic trade platform operations, e-based Customs monitoring and clearance operations among others.
Other issues raised by members of the group are:
• Servicing and emergency corrective maintenance of hydraulics systems
• Servicing and emergency corrective maintenance of specialised air conditioning system Scanner units and specialised industrial units
• Logistic requirement to keep the site operational (e.g. diesel oil, water generators, spare parts, among others)
• Provide manufacturers' agreement for maintenance of scanners (labour and spare parts) for six months, among others
Destination Inspection was recently extended by six months with effect from January 1, 2013. The agreement elapsed on December 31, 2012.
The three service providers namely Cotecna Destination Inspection Limited (CDIL), SGS and Global Scansystems, were engaged in 2005 for a seven-year contract that commenced in January 2006 to supply cargo scanning machines on Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis, as well as, train Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) officers on risk management, valuation and classification.