The refusal of Deposit Money Banks (DMB) to participate in the
recently launched e-auction bidding exercise of the Nigeria Customs
Service (NCS) yesterday unsettled its Comptroller-General, Col.
Hameed Alli (rtd), who accused the banks of sabotaging the
service’s effort at collecting revenue for the federation.
He said that: “I am surprised and I don’t know what to say. This
is an economic sabotage. The money you are going to collect is not
coming to Customs, it is not coming to me as a person, it is going
to the federation account that will be distributed to the three
tiers of government. So, you deny that.”
The Customs boss spoke in an interactive session with the Chief
Executive Officers (CEOs) of 17 banks that honoured his invitation
to his office in Abuja.
He expressed surprised that the same banks that participated in
auction exercise when it was run manually distanced themselves from
the ongoing automated auction system, leaving only Jaiz Bank as the
sole participants.
With the participation of one bank, the process was cumbersome
for the bidders, who concluded that the exercise was skewed to
favour Northners and Muslims.
He was surprised that the same banks that collect duties for the
NCS were reluctant to be part of the e-auction bidding process.
Alli said that “for us to initiate this process and the banks
pull out calls for concern. One is that we want to get some funds
from there. Two, it’s going to ease the process of what we do, and
it will encourage transparency in what we do. And the essence of
what we do is to ensure that there is transparency collected
revenue for the federation.”
The Customs boss who said the banks took the e-auction exercise
aback, however said he was glad that 17 banks CEOs were in the
session to lay bare their minds on the issue for possible
solution.
“I want to know if there are problem, and what are the
problems?” he asked.
He noted that fraudulent bidders had infiltrated the process by
conniving with one another to circumvent the transparency and
integrity of the exercise .
According to him, whoever cuts corner will be delisted from the
system.
So far, he said he could not readily state how much the service
has lost as a result of the non-participation of the banks in the
exercise.
He however dropped the hint that the bidding process has yielded
N25,375,500.00 to the federal government.
The bank chiefs however took turn to explain their challenges
with the e-auction bidding which were mostly technical issues.
Zenith Bank Plc said it was still trying to work on its software
to participate in the exercise.
Guaranty Trust Bank, said no bank would deliberately sabotage
the process. But Citi Bank noted that the agreement it had with the
NCS that elapsed in December 2014 was yet to be revalidated.
According to the bank, the gap is that the banks were not
involved.
All the parties resolved that a technical committee that has all
their representatives would meet from time to time to iron out all
the technical issues until the stabilization of e-auction
process.
The refusal of Deposit Money Banks (DMB) to participate in the
recently launched e-auction bidding exercise of the Nigeria Customs
Service (NCS) yesterday unsettled its Comptroller-General, Col.
Hameed Alli (rtd), who accused the banks of sabotaging the
service’s effort at collecting revenue for the federation.
He said that: “I am surprised and I don’t know what to say. This
is an economic sabotage. The money you are going to collect is not
coming to Customs, it is not coming to me as a person, it is going
to the federation account that will be distributed to the three
tiers of government. So, you deny that.”
The Customs boss spoke in an interactive session with the Chief
Executive Officers (CEOs) of 17 banks that honoured his invitation
to his office in Abuja.
He expressed surprised that the same banks that participated in
auction exercise when it was run manually distanced themselves from
the ongoing automated auction system, leaving only Jaiz Bank as the
sole participants.
With the participation of one bank, the process was cumbersome
for the bidders, who concluded that the exercise was skewed to
favour Northners and Muslims.
He was surprised that the same banks that collect duties for the
NCS were reluctant to be part of the e-auction bidding process.
Alli said that “for us to initiate this process and the banks
pull out calls for concern. One is that we want to get some funds
from there. Two, it’s going to ease the process of what we do, and
it will encourage transparency in what we do. And the essence of
what we do is to ensure that there is transparency collected
revenue for the federation.”
The Customs boss who said the banks took the e-auction exercise
aback, however said he was glad that 17 banks CEOs were in the
session to lay bare their minds on the issue for possible
solution.
“I want to know if there are problem, and what are the
problems?” he asked.
He noted that fraudulent bidders had infiltrated the process by
conniving with one another to circumvent the transparency and
integrity of the exercise .
According to him, whoever cuts corner will be delisted from the
system.
So far, he said he could not readily state how much the service
has lost as a result of the non-participation of the banks in the
exercise.
He however dropped the hint that the bidding process has yielded
N25,375,500.00 to the federal government.
The bank chiefs however took turn to explain their challenges
with the e-auction bidding which were mostly technical issues.
Zenith Bank Plc said it was still trying to work on its software
to participate in the exercise.
Guaranty Trust Bank, said no bank would deliberately sabotage
the process. But Citi Bank noted that the agreement it had with the
NCS that elapsed in December 2014 was yet to be revalidated.
According to the bank, the gap is that the banks were not
involved.
All the parties resolved that a technical committee that has all
their representatives would meet from time to time to iron out all
the technical issues until the stabilization of e-auction
process.
Read more https://nairalaw.com/customs-accuses-banks-of-sabotaging-e-auction/