THE House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise has commended Global Scansystems Limited and Cotecna Destination Inspection Limited for providing adequate inspection facilities as it concluded the audit of goods inspection infrastructure at the sea and Airports nationwide.
The Chairman of the Committee, Sabo Nakudu gave the commendation during an oversight visit to the Lagos Air, seaports and Seme Borders over the weekend.
He said that the duo (Cotecna and Global Scansystems) had done well in training customs officers in preparation for take over the Destination Inspection scheme.
Nakuda said the committee was in Lagos to access the quality of service delivery by the service providers and to assist the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) based on the recent extension of the destination inspection contract for the service providers by six months, with effect from January 1, 2013.
He said that the visit had enabled the committee to conduct on-ground inspection of all the facilities provided by the service providers.
Nakudu said he was satisfied with the level of service delivery and inspection infrastructure put in place at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport and the seaports, especially at the Terminals Multi-Services Limited by Global Scansystems Limited.
“We are also quite happy with the current set of the management of Nigeria Customs Service. Most of the service providers were contracted to block revenue leakages and ensure trade facilitation, ‘’he said.
The lawmaker, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of Webb Fontaine, an information management firm at the Customs Processing Centres (CPC) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport and the Lagos ports.
The committee expressed dissatisfaction at the low level of investment by the company in the scheme as there were only few computers available for use.
The lawmaker expressed optimism that customs officers will be able to take over the job from the service providers at the end of the extension period, even he urged the Nigeria Customs Service to always .retain officers on the job
so that the service could effectively take over the scheme.