CBN, MDAs abandon currency materials, hospital equipment at ports

Some key government ministries, departments and agencies have abandoned their consignments at the nation’s ports for over 12 months now.

Among the affected government agencies, according to investigation by our correspondents, are the Ministry of Health, which has 34 abandoned cargoes at the ports; and the Central Bank of Nigeria with 20 cargoes.

Others are the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which has two, and the Delta Steel Company with 22 consignments.

While the CBN consignment contains currency materials; that of the Health ministry has equipment meant for hospitals across the federation.

The abandonment of the consignments, according to findings, is in flagrant disobedience to repeated warnings issued by the Nigerian Custom Service to the affected government agencies to clear their cargoes.

Their refusal to clear the cargoes had, for instance, made the Comptroller-General of Customs, Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko, to call on the Federal Government to take punitive measures against the agencies.

Dikko had expressed regrets that several appeals made by the NCS to the defaulting agencies had not been honoured, saying the development had increased congestion at the ports.

But findings by our correspondents in Abuja indicated that bureaucracy at the nation’s ports as well as the change in government policy as it related to standardisation of equipment were major reasons for the abandonment.

The development has led to the accumulation of huge demurrage and delay in the execution of key government programmes by the affected MDAs.

The Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Mr. Mohammed Abdulahi, confirmed that the apex bank had cargoes containing spiral reinforcement materials for its projects.

Apart from this, he noted that some of the cargoes contained currency processing equipment, adding that officials of the apex bank had begun moves to clear the consignments.

In a text message sent to one of our correspondents, Abdulahi said, “The CBN has the containers at the port containing spiral reinforcement for our projects and currency processing equipment, and we are processing their clearance.

“Indeed, as I am talking to you now, our officials are there. The clearance of such things normally takes long because of the unusual bureaucracy at Nigerian ports.”

It was learnt that the delay in clearing the cargoes had constituted impediments to the targets of the Customs, especially revenue generation.

The Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, lent credence to this when he said that his ministry had secured a presidential waiver for some of the cargoes imported since 2009 by the ministry.

He said the cargoes contained hospital equipment such as incubators, laboratory analysers, endoscopic units, accessories for ambulances and other instruments.

The minister blamed the change in the Federal Government’s policy on standardisation of medical equipment for the delay in clearing the cargoes.

The policy, which was implemented during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, was part of the government’s desire to ensure good quality and economic advantage in terms of negotiation as regards the purchase of equipment.

Chukwu said, “Those were things that were ordered in 2009, and at that time, the Federal Government changed its policy in terms of equipment for the purposes of standardisation. You are aware that during the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Presidential Committee on the Standardisation of Medical Equipment was set up.

“One of the outcomes of the committee was government’s decision to ensure good quality and economic advantage in terms of negotiation as regards equipment being bought for our hospitals. The new policy now is that anytime we are buying medical equipment, we buy from the original manufacturers.”