A group of licensed agents has petitioned the Nigerian Senate over what they termed different atrocities allegedly committed by Nigeria Customs Service officials.
In the five-page petition signed by over 50 members of Concerned Licensed Customs Agents, the group accused customs officials of acts of corruption and sabotage of the country’s economy.
They said that the customs management intentionally rendered the Nigeria Integrated Customs Information Systems ineffective so as to ensure that there was no transparency and accountability in revenue collection for the government.
Instead, the NCS reintroduced the old paperwork process, which ensures that bribery at different points for officers thrives to the detriment of the government.
The customs agents also accused the Comptroller-General of NCS, Ahmed Ali, of creating different units that had turned out to be problems on their own.
Some of the units include CG Strike Force, CG Squared, CAC Monitoring Unit, and FOU in areas like Liverpool Bridge, Ijora Bridge, Leventis Area ‘B’ all in Apapa, and Tincan, Lagos State.
In the letter, which was also sent to the Secretary of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, the minister of finance, Zainab Ahmed, the group asked the Senate to look into the revenue declared by the NCS, to begin to address the problems.
The NCS has been appearing before the Senate Committee on Customs and Excise to defend its revenue and expenditure and the Senate is yet to clear the agency.
The petitioners, however, said a huge part of the revenue, which comes through the agents, ends up in private pockets instead of government purse.
At the last appearance before the Senate, the customs management was unable to account for N1.6 billion the service allocated for recruitment and training of 3,200 personnel.
Unspent funds were also queried by the lawmakers to which the customs could not give a satisfactory answer.
The licensed agents called on the National Assembly to stop the revenue bleeding of the nation caused by corruption in the NCS.
Source: SaharaReporters
