Ports: Addressing Conflict of Interests in Practitioners’ Operating Fees
After a failed attempt to collect the controversial pracitioners’ operating fees at the ports and border stations by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) as a result of conflict of interests exhibited by warring customs
The last of the collection of the controversial practitioners’ operations fees is yet to be heard. After about a month of the planned collection, simmering dissention among customs brokers on the issue has degenerated. There has been a clear conflict of interest among freight forwarders who will no doubt benefit from the promising revenue haven for practitioners. On the war path are the leadership of Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) and all the registered freight forwarding associations. While CRFFN and the four registered associations, including the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), a faction of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN) and National Association of Freight Forwarders and Consolidators (NAFFAC) are on one side in support of the collection to begin, the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) is opposed to the arrangement so far. But ANLCA’s opposition is a new development as the President, Alhaji Olayiwora Shittu, had given his nod earlier after months of opposition.
Shittu was however jolted when the Board of his association came out to kick against the sharing formula. Some members of the association in Seme Border had about a month ago attacked officials of the CRFFN who went about collecting the operating fees from customs brokers. Following this, the Transport Ministry had last week summoned all the stakeholders to a meeting in Abuja on the issue. Since then, tension has been high in the industry on what will happen next as the CRFFN plans a second coming for the collection.
Conflicts of Interests
The planned collection of practising fees at the ports will be paid by customs brokers at the point of clearing any consignment for their importers. It is a huge sum that will be raked in every day. Under the arrangement, any customs broker clearing any consignment will pay N1,000 for a 20ft container and N2,000 for a 40ft container. Those clearing cars will pay N1,000 while N2,000 will be paid on trucks. Similarly, N300.00 per ton will be collected from those clearing bulk goods. It will fill the gap created over the decades as many practitioners find it difficult to pay membership dues to their associations. The collection, it was gathered, will be more favourable to other four associations who have been finding it difficult to collect membership dues as against ANLCA which is said to have been collecting practising fees from its corporate members over the years. The conflict of interest THISDAY learns is that the new operating fees will simply collapse what ANLCA has been collecting from its members. The association cannot collect any more fees after members had paid the operating fees at the ports. The only operating fee will be the one paid at the ports and approved by the CRFFN. But beyond this, is the membership strength enjoyed by ANLCA in its collection at the ports. There are more corporate bodies who are members of ANLCA than other associations. This is what ANLCA has been arguing about that it cannot get equal sharing in the 40 per cent stake that has been given to the five associations. It was gathered that while the President of the Association, Shittu, had accepted the sharing formula, the Board of the association kicked against this. This explains why the association is strongly opposed to the present sharing formula. Shittu had told this writer that the whole issue would be resolved during a national executive council meeting of the association. But other associations said ANLCA cannot dictate to the practitioners since they are all equal by law. It was gathered that the association had set up a Committee in which former President, Sir Ernest Elochukwu, and Mr. Kayode Farinton are members to advise the NEC of ANLCA on the next line of action. The committee is said to have made strong moves to get about five percent more in what will be collected, but this effort may not be yielding fruit. The source said the Registrar of the Council, Sir Mike Jukwe, has shunned the committee on the argument that the position of the association on the matter is wrong.
Abuja Meeting
At the stakeholders’ meeting called by the Transport Ministry recently, there was no clear resolution as the leaders of the associations took different positions on the matter. A source said that many members of ANLCA kept away from the meeting presided over by the Permanent Secretary of FMOT, Mallam Mohammed Bashar. But those who attended, including Farinton gave reasons against the planned collection. At the meeting, Bashar was said to have threatened to sanction ANLCA if it failed to subject itself to regulation by the CRFFN as an agency of government. While making it clear that CRFFN has the right to collect the operating fees, the Permanent Secretary had promised that the Ministry would rework the modalities for collection and sharing of the practitioners’ fees.
On the argument that the CRFFN cannot carry out such function without a board in place, the stakeholders were told that the “Attorney General had advised that even though the Council is not sitting, the minister can give directive as to the operation of the agency till the board is in place”. A letter from the Ministry of Justice where the Attorney General had advised that the Council can operate without a Governing Council was also presented during the stakeholders’ meeting. But Farinton who attended the meeting had told the meeting that ANLCA was not party to such letter and it cannot be binding on members. The Ministry promised to work out further modalities with the CRFFN and call another meeting or issue a circular on the matter.
Threat by Four Associations
As a follow-up to the Abuja meeting, the four associations in favour of the collection during the week said they will not tolerate a repeat of what happened in Seme recently where officials of CRFFN and NAGAFF were beaten up. They called on the CRFFN Registrar, Sir Mike Jukwe, to wake up to his responsibility by mobilizing enough security agencies to ensure peace and order while it carries out its assignment of collecting the fees. Founder of NAGAFF, Dr Boniface Aniebonam, said the CRFFN as an agency of government cannot be stopped from carrying out a policy approved by the government. He said such attack as carried out by members of ANLCA at Seme Border would be met with the long arm of the law when a new date for the collection of the fees is fixed. Aniebonam also threatened that the four associations would move against the Registrar of CRFFN, if he fails to mobilize enough security operatives to ensure that the repeat of the Seme Border incident by ANLCA is checked. He explained that this was because CRFFN as a government agency cannot complain of not having enough powers to carry out its function with the Police and other security operatives at its disposal. Aniebonam accused the leadership of ANLCA of opposing the collection because of its dissatisfaction with the sharing formula, adding that the association cannot over-rule the policy of government. Besides, Aniebonam said there is nothing ANLCA can do on the matter since other four associations which have equal status with the association have accepted the sharing formula. “We are in a democracy and four will carry the day in a vote against one”, he said. He said ANLCA was aggrieved because it had been collecting such fees from its members over the years.
However, reacting to the allegations and threat by the associations, a top member of ANLCA who did not want to be quoted said the association was patiently waiting for the decision of the Transport Ministry as promised during the stakeholders’ meeting. Describing the threat as empty, he accused some leaders of the four associations of trying to reap where they did not sow.