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Saturday, October 5, 2019 / 04.00PM / Teslim Shitta-Bey, Managing Editor, Proshare/Header Image Credit: CBi & MACN
Deliberate violation of standard operating procedures
(SOPs) and the rampant use of discretionary authority by port officers remain two
of the most severe problems at Nigerian ports and a major cause of the
country's inability to do better in its ease of doing business index, says a
recent survey of the Convention on Business Integrity (CBi) and supported by
the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN).
The Survey
The survey notes that there is a general awareness of
standard operational procedures (SOPs) at the ports and terminals but officers
working at the maritime facilities prefer to implement the SOPs in their
breech. Circumventing the procedures allows port officials demand and receive 'service premiums' to facilitate the processing of cargo (see
illustration 1 below).
Reducing service quality or service scale offered at a
lower 'official' processing cost (P0), reduces port activity from Q0
to Q1, forcing those that want speedier service or improved service
quality to pay P1 rather than P0. This leads to a
non-official service 'premium' of P1-P0 or what amounts
to the price of port corruption.
The report notes that, "Many public officers are
themselves insurance covers for many in their society where many are unemployed
thereby further creating and fueling the propensity for cycle of corruption
within the economic system of the port".
Additionally, the survey notes that port corruption
has strong social undertones, "the common orientation in Nigeria is that
the end justifies the means. Nigeria is a system where people do not ask how
people do their work to earn a living but celebrate bogus and unsustainable
lifestyles. For example, if a port official has a fleet of expensive cars and
houses in highbrow areas of the country, Nigerians will likely not ask the
source of income but only celebrate his/her time has come and even wish they
were like him/her".
Using what the report describes as a PESTEL analysis
which references political, economic, social, technology, environmental and
legal issues at the port the report notes that the increased application of
technology would relieve the ports of the burden of human intervention in the
compliance with standard operating procedures.
The report further notes that that environmental
conditions also strongly affect the ability of port officials to act in a
manner that is consistent with best integrity practices. The survey observes
that, "Based on the principle of Federal Character, postings in
government establishments are often based on ethnic and political
considerations and these affect the nature of operations at the ports. It
affects how people perceive the ports and how they operate in them. Even though
there are many ports in the country, there is significant power distance
between the supply side and the demand side such that there are exercises of
discretionary powers and demand for unofficial payments within a broader corruption
framework"
On a strong positive side, the survey notes that the
rules, regulations and general legal context of port operations are appropriate
but the problem lies in the failure of port managers to implement the rules,
guidelines and regulations. According to the survey, "Many existing laws,
rules and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) only exist on paper while
applications are poor as people rather operate informally and see the laws as
meant for the management and not to be applied thereby making the ports run as
business as usual. This creates a fertile ground for corruption and
inefficiency. The letters of the rules and SOPs are not usually activated to
combat corruption and in many cases, officials and customers innovate fresh
strategies to counteract the laws and rules through which they create systemic
legal, regulatory and administrative bottlenecks for personal gains and against
effective ports operations and anti-corruption since corruption fail where
there are seamless operations and effective rules and SOPs".
To explain the details of the survey analysis, the
Convention on Business Integrity (CBi) and the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network
(MACN) will be hosting a roundtable session on" "Service Delivery At The
Nigerian Ports". The event will take place on Tuesday, October 8,2019 from
9.30am at The Providence Event Centre at No. 12A Oba Akinjobi Way,
Ikeja, GRA, Lagos.
Download PDF Copy of Port Reform Report
1. Operations At Nigerian Sea Ports & Terminals: Ports Users Survey Report - Proshare
2. Operations At Nigerian Sea Ports & Terminals: Ports Users Survey Report - CBi
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