PORT HARCOURT— HOUSE of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise has called for measures to be put in place to ensure optimum utilisation of ports in the eastern zone of the organisation.
Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Mr Kingsley Chindah, who led members of the committee on a visit to Rivers State, expressed worry over what he described as underutilisation and non-performance of ports in the zone.
The committee condemned one of the service providers at the Onne Port for poor service delivery, noting that it was disturbing that five years after it signed a contract to provide fixed scanner for Area 1 Operations of the Customs in Port Harcourt, it was yet to deliver on the project.
Chindah said the firm also defaulted in the contract when it provided a mobile scanner at Onne Oil and Gas free zone as against the fixed scanner contained in the contract papers. The scanner, according to those on ground, who briefed the lawmakers was not reliable as it was breaking down very often thus affecting operations in the area.
He later directed men of the Customs to come up with detail information on losses suffered so far as a result of the epileptic state of the scanner and other details.
“The issue of scanning machines, unfortunately SGS is not here, but let’s have an idea of how much we have lost due to the inadequacy of the scanning machine we have now or its incessant break down. You said that has affected your revenue profile, we will want to have a clear picture of how much we have been losing as a result of this challenge,” Chinda said.
He appealed to the Nigerian Customs to continue to be vigilant to be able to curb arms proliferation and other related crimes around the ports.
By JIMITOTA ONOYUME
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