Over the years, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has become synonymous with ‘corruption’. When Customs officers aren’t accused of collecting bribes to under-declare a consignment, they are accused of owning clearing licenses and functioning as clearing agents or the junior officers acting as couriers to collect monies illegally for top ranked officers.
There have also been alleged cases of Customs officers wearing fake ranks, while it has become a norm in the Service for officers to stay in one office for more 10 years when the Service guidelines says three years. It is normal to see junior ranked Customs officers living in affluence, owing choicest houses, landed properties and cars that their annual income cannot purchase, yet Customs officers are always quick to tell you just how poor their welfare and remuneration is.
When Col. Hammed Ali (Rtd) emerged as the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service he promised to reform, restructure, and increase revenue, and he also stressed that the minimum jail term for corrupt officers is five years wasn’t sufficient, but he promised to make sure that any officer found to be corrupt gets the maximum jail term of 10 years.
“This is to serve as a deterrent to any officer who finds himself in the Customs to make money and not to earn money. I am not saying that there are no good, incorruptible officers in the service, but there are few bad eggs who are giving the service a bad name,” Ali said about eliminating corruption from the Service.
The CGC also cautioned the officials against indiscipline and living above their means.
“Our work ethics must change to be in tune with the change mantra as championed by President Muhammadu Buhari,” he said.
Stakeholders in the maritime industry have kept calling attention of the government to the corruption in the NCS, this context refers to serving customs officers owning clearing licenses, this unwholesome practice among senior serving customs officers have freight forwarders crying out at any available opportunity. But so far, with little or no evidence of the accusation, no officer has been indicted for practicing freight forwarding.
There is also the issue of officers staying in one office for more than three years which is the duration for each officer of the Service.
Barr. Fred Akokhia, a legal practitioner and an ex-Customs officer spoke to MMS Plus about some of these mafia-like sharp practices.
According to Barr. Fred, there are certain monetary benefits attached to the transfer of officers. These include their accommodation, transportation, etc. An officer to be transferred is likely to spend at least 28 days in a hotel no matter the rank of that officer. Some of these monetary obligations are what restrains the Nigeria Customs Service from transferring officers from one post to another as they ought to. Hence, the Service would rather have officers stay where they are because there is no money to cater for mass transfer of officers.
While some officers also make efforts to remain at a particular position, Mr. Akokhia stated that the Service allows them mainly because it was not prepared to sponsor their transfers.
On the issue of Customs officers also functioning as Clearing Agents, Akokhia noted that this has been one of the popular allegations on the Customs.
However, he recalled that the former CGC Dikko Abdullahi admonished freight forwarders and the general public to report such officers to the Service.
“There was a time the former Comptroller-General of Customs Dikko Abdullahi asked us to name the officers so that they would be prosecuted but no one could come up with a single name. These allegations can be true but we can’t prosecute an officer without facts.
“Customs license corporate bodies and one can set up a company and not be a subscriber to article or memo. The person could be the man or woman behind the mask. That is why we said stop licensing corporate bodies rather, license individuals so that if Mr. B is licensed and Mr. B is also a Customs officer, it is easy to nail him” He said.
Corruption In Ali’s Customs
He lamented that the port system makes it impossible to catch any officer because it is corporate bodies that are licensed and not the individuals. A man can decide to set up a company and decide not to be signatory to the account, but the workers know who owns the company.
Meanwile the Deputy National President of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Chief Uche Increase stated that the recent sack of 29 senior Customs officers meant that Col. Hammed Ali (Rtd) is keeping his promise to flush out the bad eggs in the Service.
However, he expressed worry that the NCS did not reveal the names of the 29 senior officers who were not disclosed to the media, neither did the Service disclose in details the nature of their offences.
The recent dismissal included four (4) Deputy-Comptroller of Customs and five (5) Assistant-Comptrollers, seven (7) Chief Superintendents of Customs, four (4) Superintendents, among others in what some stakeholders have termed “Ali’s anti-corrupt crusade against corrupt officers in the Nigeria Customs Service NCS.
During the penultimate week, the Customs had also ejected 17 junior officers for offences ranging from drug addiction, certificate forgery, theft and absence from duty from January to September 2016.
While the factional President of National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Mr. Lucky Amiwero lamented that the appointment of Col. Hammed Ali as CGC in the first place was faulty.
According to Amiwero, the Customs operations should be too sacrosanct to put people with no knowledge about Customs.
“Customs is knowledge driven. It is about import and export, hence it has an international flavor and it is principled by trade procedures on international conventions. So when you bring a man who doesn’t understand those procedures, there isn’t much that he can do.
“The system cannot work under such leadership. The Police, Immigrations, Prisons, etc all have their own thorough-bred officers as helmsmen. So why are we bringing someone with no knowledge about Customs to head a Service whose activities massively affect the economy.
“Ali would first have to understand how corruption thrives in the Service to be able to fight it. He would need to do some reforms but the biggest problem is that he doesn’t know what to do, hence he would rely on certain people to give advice and he may not get the best that way. An expert ought to be on that seat dishing out orders and making decisions and not seeking advice” Amiwero said.
