The Senate Committee on Customs and Excise is set to summon the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col Hameed Ali (retd.), over the move by the NCS to concession its duty collection function to a foreign firm.
The vice chairman of the committee, Senator Francis Fadahunsi, who disclosed this on Friday, said the NCS boss was expected to bring all documents relating to the agreement he signed with the foreign firm.
The senator said, “Our committee will write the CG, NCS to demand for the documents with which the agreement was signed. He is expected to bring all the documents relating to the agreement. All of us in the committee did not support the concessioning idea.
“If the CG, NCS refuses to bring the documents, we will write the Minister of Finance who is the chairman of the board, and a centre point of the deal to bring them. We want to see the agreement. We held a meeting on the issue during the week.
“As soon as we go through the documents and we find out that it is almost the same thing which other administrations had done in the past which is just to find jobs for the ‘boys’, or a special interest for some people to steal our money, we will kick against it.
“There is no amount of money we want to generate in the Customs that the personnel of the Nigerian Customs Service, if properly trained and monitored, cannot generate.
“What is the essence of the seven per cent cost of collection? It is to collect maximum revenue. What the Comptroller General of the NCS should do is to recruit more personnel instead of looking for foreigners to come and spend a false N3.4bn, claiming that they will spend the amount on ICT.
“Meanwhile, the NCS had already awarded a contract of almost N384m early this year on the same scanner that the foreign firm said it would invest money on.”
Investigations had revealed that the Federal Government had perfected plans to concession the Nigeria Customs Service automation project, also known as the e-customs, to a private firm.
The concessionaires were said to have promised to invest $3.1bn and generate $176bn within the 20-year contract period, estimated at about N3tn per annum.
Further findings revealed that the Federal Executive Council had approved the controversial concession contract to Messrs E-Customs HC Project Limited.
It was said to have got the job at the cost of $3.1bn for a period of 20 years under Public Private Partnership arrangement.
However, another firm, Messrs Adani Systems Limited/Webb Fontaine, had faulted the contract award to Messrs E-Customs HC Project Limited.
Adani’s management claimed that it had an existing agreement with the Federal Government to do the same project with nearly the same conditions and insisted that the E-Customs HC wanted to hijack the project.
The development drew the attention of the House of Representatives and it subsequently asked its Joint Committee on Finance and Customs to probe it.
The Joint Committee mandated the parties involved in the controversial contract to maintain status quo ante pending the outcome of the public hearing.
In carrying out their findings, the panels invited the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the NCS, the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission and the two contractors.
The panel in its report cited Section 42(1a) of the Procurement Act 2017, the Bureau for Public Procurement on April 11, 2017, which granted certificate of no objection to the CBN recommending Messrs Adani Mega Systems Limited/ Webb Fontaine for the award of the project contract.
It was also discovered by the committee that CBN-TC on the CISS on behalf of the Federal Government engaged and signed contract with Messrs Adani Systems Limited/Webb Fontaine on a Build Operate and Own agreement.
The document indicated that the proposed concession period would last for 20 years on pro- rata sharing of 1 per cent (CISS and NESS) on phase 1 of ($300m) investment.
The committee held that there was a contract agreement entered between the CBB-TC on CISS. It also held that, although the new consortium presented a letter of engagement from the office of the Chief of Staff to the President and other documents showing the level of work they had done, it was unfortunate that there was no contract agreement with the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Investigations showed that Messrs Adani Systems Limited/ Webb Fontaine had instituted a court case challenging the cancellation of the agreement in December 2018 at the Federal High Court with suit No FHC/ ABJ/CS/2017, demanding $2.5bn as damages.
Based on the suit, the Solicitor General of the Federation wrote the Minister of Finance, urging her to consider the strength and weakness as well as litigation fees.
Meanwhile, the office of the Chief of Staff to the President had issued a letter engaging the consortium to carry out the same project awarded to Messrs Adani Systems Limited/Webb Fontaine seven months after they were engaged by CBN-CISS. The letter, titled, ‘Presidential Initiatives on Customs Modernisation of e-Customs Project,’ was dated September 17, 2019.
The Reps Joint Committee concluded that the Presidency was not duly informed of the existing contract agreement and litigation filed by Messrs Adani Systems Limited/ Webb Fontaine.
It also said there was no evidence before the committee that a contract was signed between the consortium and the Federal Government or CBN- CISS.
The Joint Committee in its recommendations therefore said Messrs Adani Systems Limited/ Webb Fontaine should be allowed to continue with the project so as to avoid unimaginable possible revenue loss to the country.
They also supported a Build-Operate-Transfer delivery method for the project and not Build, Operate and Own.
The report was signed by the chairmen of the House of Reps committees on Finance, Public Petitions and Customs as well as clerks of both committees on Finance and Customs.
He said, “Even if the NCS is regarded as underperforming, it does not mean that we have to give their work out to any foreign firm. Such an idea does not augur well for this country. At 60, we are still looking outside for services that we have competent people who could provide in the country.
“We have competent Nigerians who should be able to do the job. There is nothing wrong with concessioning if it is within Nigeria and among Nigerians. We have some experts here who can do it better. Giving the job to a foreign firm is not proper except we have an international aspect of it outside the Nigerian shores and the foreign firm could handle that but if it is within the Nigerian borders, I don’t think that is right.
“Also, it is not as if we are going to disband the NCS, we will still be paying people for not rendering services. It is not right to concession customs duties to any foreign firm. I think someone wants to gain something from that.”