By Oluwole Josiah, Abuja


The Senate Committee on Public Accounts on Wednesday asked the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Ministry of Finance and the Nigeria Customs Service to justify the disbursement of about N114.5bn, that accrued to the Customs Import Supervision Scheme in five years.

The CISS fund is derived from a one per cent levy on Custom’s revenue to pay for inspection services.

The three agencies, which appeared before the committee, had difficulties explaining the actual value of the accruals and how much was left after disbursements.

The four benefiting companies contracted under a Build, Operate and Transfer agreement, were also asked to account for adherence to the terms of their respective contracts.

According to the documents submitted by the Ministry of Finance, a total of N114.5bn had accrued to CISS fund between 2003 and 2008 and was paid into the pool account domiciled at the CBN.

A total of N58.1bn had been disbursed to four service providers’ which are handling the import inspections with their scanners.

The CBN’s presentation put the CISS account balance at N21.6bn as at April 2009.

While making his presentation, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Mr. Steve Oronsaye, said the fund was meant for the development of the Customs Service with regard to enhanced imports supervision and checking of goods at the ports.

He noted that when importers paid the levies, the money was not sent to Customs directly, but was paid into an account with the CBN.

According to him, this was so because pre-shipment inspection had been replaced with the destination inspection regime.

Oronsanye said the government entered into an agreement with the service providers when the Customs required scanners at the ports, but that the government had no money available at the time.

He said the contract required the service providers to invest their monies in the equipment and transfer to the Customs within a period of seven years from 2006.

The committee was worried that the agencies could not account for the balance of N34.8bn in the face of the declared balance and the amount disbursed.

The CBN figures showed that between 2006 and 2008, Global Scan received N6.45bn; SGS, N5.081bn; Contecna, N24.93bn; and Wolfenton, N21.373 bn.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Ahmed Lawan, said the level of investment by the companies showed that they had not kept to the terms of the contract.

He said the companies were supposed to train the staff of the NCS on the operations of the scanners within the period of the contract before the transfer, but said that evidence showed that the companies were not adhering to this aspect of the contract.

“My fear is that at the end of the contract, it will be difficult for the Nigerian Customs to take over the machines because they have not been adequately trained.

“Because they (companies) don’t want to leave as a result of the money they are making, they are not willing to train Nigerians to take over the scanners,” he said.

The committee ordered the apex bank to submit all the details of the accounts of the CISS since its inception in 1979 to ascertain the manner in which the funds had been administered within the period.

The committee also vowed to probe the four companies to see if they had made any meaningful investments on the ground by various visits to selected operational sites.