BusinessDay 28 Mar 2018

32 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556
Wednesday 28 March 2018
SHIPPING LOGISTICS MARITIME e-COMMERCE
We will rate clearance, marine
sides of port operations - Apampa
SOJI APAMPA is a co-founder of the Convention of Business Integrity, which represents Maritime Anti-Corruption Network
(MACN) in Nigeria. In this interview with CHUKA UROKO and AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE, he gives an insight into the reform
that MACN is carrying out in Nigerian seaports in partnership with the Federal Government steering committees to reduce
the propensity for port corruption and instil professional ethics among service providers and port users. Excerpt.
The committee
Since 2011/2012, the
Federal Government
has been involved with
reforms at the ports. They
have selected five ports
and they are Tin-Can Island, Apapa,
Onne, Calabar and Port Harcourt
ports to look at. The government
has been looking at how to reduce
the propensity for corruption in
those ports together with the United
Nations Development Programme
(UNDP), Independent Corrupt
Practices Commission (ICPC),
Technical Unit on Government
Anti-Corruption Reforms (TUGAR),
Shippers’ Council and other
agencies at the port like Customs
and Immigration.
These agencies have formed a
steering committee that is looking at
how to improve services by coming
out with Standard Operating
Procedure (SOP) that spells out
what people should expect from
Customs officials. How the official
would respond when dealing with
port users and make provision for
unsatisfied customers to make
complaint. Not only have they
identified those things, but they
have been able to document the
standard operating procedure,
which is now online at a site called
www.pssp.ng, which is www.
portservicesupportportal. ng
At this site, port users can report,
and find the SOP for all the agencies
at the ports including the terminal
operators. On top of all of these,
the most important thing is that
the actors have to behave with
professional ethics. The Maritime
Anti-Corruption Network, which is
the network of some of the biggest
shipping companies that represents
about 25 percent of global tonnage,
have come together to form the
Network, which has been financing
a process of training about 1,000
port officials on professional ethics.
So, they are sensitised on what
it is they are supposed to be doing
in terms of their SOP but also what
their colleagues around the world
are doing. This is what we have been
doing since 2012 and that training
has reached 1,000 trainees.
Proliferation of government
agencies at the ports
The steering committee is a
committee of government and
all the committee members
are government agencies. The
Maritime Anti-Corruption Network
is supporting the works of the
steering committee which is made
up of about nine government
Soji Apampa
agencies or so government agencies
that are at the port apart from the
terminal operators. The committee
members have tried to streamline
the responsibilities of each of those
agencies and that was why they
came up with the SOPs, so when you
see Immigration or Customs you
will know what they are expected
to do.
But the tragedy is neither the
ship captains, who are calling our
ports, nor the operators at the ports
seem to be adequately aware of
these things. We have cause to test
this procedure. For example, there
was a report by one of the members
of MSC shipping line, late last year
that their vessel was arrested at
Forcados, and was given an illegal
charge of about $8,000 to pay,
which they decided to complain
through the Shippers Council.
The Council took it up and within
48 hours, that vessel was released
and investigation commenced
immediately.
So, that is the kind of agility that
we are finding from the government
but sadly most business people do
not know that they can report if they
are not getting service and the portal
enables all the agencies to know that
a report has been made as well as
the nature of the report. They have
a service level agreement that once
a report comes in within 24 hours,
they must acknowledge the report
and within two to five working days,
they must resolve it, and if it requires
to be redressed or something that
needs a bit more time, it must be
resolved within 21 working days.
But people are not using it yet
because they do not know, which
is why the training took place few
weeks ago. So, people can know
because the more people use the
portal, the more you test the report
and the more you test the ability of
Nigeria to self-correct some of the
issues that have been going on.
Compliance level by both service
providers and port users
The compliance level is not
anywhere near where we would
have liked it. As I mentioned, both
the port users and operators are not
aware of the details of the SOP and
the portal. It is imperative to make
sure that everybody knows.
However, the ship captains
are reporting that safety related
incidents have reduced. They are
also mentioning that pre-berth
delays have also reduced in our
ports, that the threats to crew have
also reduced. So, something seems
to be shifting but how much more
the progress we can make if many
more people are aware, use it and
test the political will to push through
these changes that are taking place
in our ports.
Suggestions on how to ensure
timely delivery of cargo
I wish you had been at the training,
you would have felt the pulse of these
operators as they were complaining
of the broken scanners, the fact that
they are supposed to examine a
40 foot container. The question is
what can Customs do to move all
that material and give a 100 percent
inspection? Yet, they do not have
the tools. This was one of the key
messages that they want us to make
sure that the vice president hears as
an outcome of this project.
Sometimes, the forklift to
position the container becomes an
issue. The complaint was that it is not
just the case of Customs but all the
operators understanding their roles
and the SOPs have documented
all these but they are not all aware
of what their top echelon already
agreed as the minimum standards.
So, we want to test it as the
convention of business integrity and
in collaboration with this steering
committee, we want to do a rating
of the ports. We are going to rate the
ports both on the clearance side and
on the marine side to know how well
they have been able to implement
this SOPs. This is something we
will continue to track to make sure
that improvements are known by
Nigerians and that it is not just
an improvement on paper alone.
However, all the port workers tell
us very pathetic stories about their
condition of service.
We have the case of a gentleman
shot in the eye, permanently
disabled but he has to pay for his
own medical bills and he is now
asking the question, is he supposed
to die for his own country when he
is being offered money? So, we will
like to encourage the government
to look at it that if we are pushing
for reforms around corruption,
we should be improving workers’
welfare, working condition,
providing the tools and equipment,
and removing rotten eggs from
the system and allow those with
integrity to come to the surface.
Imagine a situation where people
are buying ranks because the feeling
is once you reached a certain rank,
you will start to make money. It just
perpetuates the wrongdoing and
entrenches it as a norm that is what
we want to break.
Impact of poor port infrastructure
The situation is damaging the aim
of port concession in my view but I
think we need to put a spotlight on
the activities of terminal operators,
private jetties and other facilities
that we do not look at when talking
about ports. Internationally, the
biggest challenge for Nigeria from
the perspective of the members of
Maritime Anti-Corruption Network
is Bonny Port. Even though, the
ships call on 15,000 other ports
around the world, Bonny is still their
biggest headache. So, we need the
spotlight shown on it.
And if you publish ratings on how
all of these ports are performing,
then, it will encourage a policy
discussion with the government
based on fact. For instance, you can
establish that this port is performing
better while another one is less
efficient. And this is where the issue
of equipment and the contracts
of the operators will come in, and
then we will start to advocate that
the government should enforce
the contract of terminal operators
or change them. Unless you can
gather such information, in policy
research, it will be difficult to
encourage that policy change.
Bonny port
The fact that in a room of 90 shipping
companies, who run about 8,000
vessels, the only port that they
wanted to have a breakout session
on was Bonny, already tells you
something and these are global
players. This is in the area of cost
that is suspected to be corruptly
levied on their vessels. So, the
problem of Bonny Port is in the area
of corruption.
Ease of Doing Business Policy
The little reform we have done
has improved Nigeria’s rank in the
World Bank ease of doing business
ranking. How much more if we then
pay attention to these other areas?
I think that Nigeria would be great
again. All the feedback gathered
would be sent to the Vice President
including what the port users are
saying about infrastructure so that
a plan would be put in place to
ameliorate the problem because to
draw attention to them, somebody
has to put forward the raw data in
front of the decision makers.
Port infrastructure
We know that the infrastructure is
completely dilapidated and that
Apapa-Oshodi Expressway from
Isolo to Tin-Can is impassable. We
know that we have more number
of trucks coming to the port than
we have the space to receive the
trucks. We know that a truck might
go through the entire process,
reach the gate and the shipping
company says there is one more
charges to pay and the truck
turned back. We know that there
are some kinds of games possible
because there is no sufficient
oversight over the processes that
we are promising to improve if we
must improve the ease of doing
business. These are the things
that we are trying to highlight to
make sure that the changes that
we intend to achieve become
sustainable.