WASHINGTON: Comptroller General of Customs, Col Hameed Ali (rted), has ordered officers of the Service to embarked actual 100 percent cargo examination to ensure that no offensive consignment gets out from the port. The Customs boss who gave the ordered in Lagos, said that actual 100 percent examination should been done on all imported goods even though it will affect 48 hours cargo clearance at the port.
According to him, “We have instructed our officers that no matter what, even if it is only three containers they can examine in a day, they must make sure that any container that gets out of the port is properly screened. Ali said due to the poor conditions of the scanners, Customs officers have resorted to physical examination of goods but admitted that this has made 48 hours cargo clearance of goods impossible as it does not help in facilitating trade.
Customs CG, Hameed Ali He said that they have problem with the scanners because most of them are not working. He noted that after examining the scammers only two can be immediately repaired and put to use but the others will be repaired also. “With the ones we have now, we have done scrutiny on them and two of them can be repaired and put back but we need to replace most of them. “We have problems with the scanners because most of them are not working. We are working diligently to replace them.
By God’s grace by the end of this first quarter, we will have scanners at our ports. “Paucity of fund has been part of our problem but we are working diligently to ensure that we get scanners into the ports and the borders. We are working on that,” he said. “Customs has pride itself on clearance of goods under 48 hours in the past but because of the unavailability of scanners, we have now propelled our officers to ensure proper examination although it is not going to facilitate trade as we want it but for security of this country, we would rather go through the pains of painstakingly conducting examination on every container at the port.
