Customs
Litigation, suspicion stall implementation of E- Customs project

—As CGC Ali queries sincerity of House of Reps committee
Eyewitness reporter
It could be recalled that in 2019, the Federal government approved the engagement of a consortium of four firms to enter into a 20-year concession arrangement with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) for a Customs modernisation project and establishment of digital and paperless Customs administration.
On September 2nd, 2020, the Federal Executive Council (FEC), presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, ratified the NCS modernisation scheme estimated to cost about $3.1billion.
The presidential initiative on the NCS modernisation or “E-Customs Project” requires the establishment of a digital/paperless customs administration.
In his submission, the CGC declared “investigations carried out by the Service revealed that Messrs Adani Mega Systems Limited outsourced the agreement to an unauthorized third party Adani International Limited (UK) registered four months after the agreement was signed and the Company has since been dissolved ( Copy of the search result is hereby enclosed as Annex A).
“Therefore, the assertion by Adani Mega System Ltd that its international partner has a proven track record, capacity, expertise and competence to execute and operate within the project field covered by the agreement was false and misleading.
“It was upon the realization of this misrepresentation that the Committee on CISS canceled the agreement entered into with Messrs Adani Mega Systems Limited, via a letter Ref:TED/DIR/GAM/GEN/Ol/OZS dated 18th September 2017 (Capy attached as Annex ‘B).
“It is worthy of note also that the House of Representatives Joint Committee On Finance, Customs and Public Petition passed a resolution suspending the Concession Agreement on e-Customs pending the outcome of an investigative hearing.
“The hearing was conducted and the Committee Vide a second letter NAS S/9/CHR/2019/JOINT/002 dated 20th December 2019 (Copy of the letter is hereby attached as Annex C) stated that after due consideration of the process towards the award, has found no breach in the award of the contract for the e-Customs Project.
“The committee recommended that the agreement be finalised and the Consortium awarded the Contract (Copy of the House Committee’s report is attached as Annex D). It is therefore curious that the same House is raising the issue over again.”
Apparently, the word “curious” as used by the Customs boss which was considered derogatory, unsettled the lawmakers, as a member of the Committee, Ndukwe Nkole, asked the Customs Comptroller General to withdraw the remark and tender an apology.
“The CG of customs in his address to this parliament, especially in paragraph 4, is very derogatory to the parliament and it is very wrong for a public officer, an appointed officer to address elected representatives, that he’s curious.
“So I demand that the CG of customs must apologise to this parliament for using such a derogatory statement on the parliament.”
However, rather than apologise, ACG Saidu, who represented the CGC, merely emphasised the importance of the project until he was prevailed upon by lawmakers before he reluctantly said “I apologise”.
Zainab Ahmed who was represented by the Director of Home Finance, Stephen Okon, informed the committee that the Finance Ministry was liaising with the Office of Attorney General to ensure quick resolution of the legal drawbacks so as to implement the project.
He expressed the belief that if the project is properly implemented, it will go a long way in reducing Nigeria’s vulnerability to external debts and also strengthen its currency.
“The cost of concession implementation over a 20-year period is $3.1 billion American Dollars and the project is projected to generate about $176.2 billion American Dollars within the 20 years Concession period.
“We equally understood the SPV is to recover their investment based on negotiated and staggered recovery strong ratio from the Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme (CISS) and Nigerian Export Supervision Scheme (NESS),” he said.
However, the public hearing was adjourned to March 4, 2022, to allow Adani mega systems, the litigant and the remaining parties such as the CBN to present their own submissions to the committee.
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