The Federal Ministry of Transportation says N180 million has been approved for Port Standing Task Team (PSTT) to fight corruption and prevent other maritime crimes across the nation’s seaports.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Magdalene Ajani, said his at the 3rd roundtable on Maritime Sector Reforms: “Consolidating the Gains,” held in Lagos on Wednesday.
The roundtable was organized by the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) and Convention on Business Integrity (CBI).
Ajani was represented by Babatunde Sule, who noted that the Federal Government instructed Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to provide funds and operational vehicles for the PSTT.
Ajani added that the government agencies were instructed to provide N60 million each for the Port Standing Task Team to carry on the anti-corruption crusade across the nation’s ports.
“Port administration policy is such that port users are able to demand, track, and ensure greater compliance with Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) by government agencies.
“And so, incidences of corrupt demands as it relates to vessel clearance has reduced.
`Government capacity to establish policy on compliance systems and collaborate with the private sector and civil society to improve trade flows and the ease of doing business are being strengthened,” she said.
She said that the ministry, through the NSC, the Technical Unit on Government and Anti-Corruption Reforms (TUGAR), and other agencies, Nigeria was poised to augment its standing by further institutionalizing and continuously sustaining its reforms.
The National Coordinator of PSTT, Mr Moses Fadipe, confirmed the approval for the operations of the task team, adding that only NSC, being the leading agency, had responded to the government’s instruction.
He revealed that other agencies, which included NIMASA and NPA, were yet to respond and the PSTT had not received anything from them.
Fadipe noted that the Nigerian maritime sector had made significant progress towards promoting efficiency and transparency in recent years.
“The PSTT has played a significant role in transforming the sector through its commendable monitoring and enforcement of adherence to the provisions of the Nigerian Ports Process Manual and in its discharge of other ancillary mandates.
“The task team’s interventions have led to a reduction in inefficiencies and corruption, and there has been a positive impact on the economy.
“Strict monitoring and enforcement of joint boarding of vessels procedure, transparency in monitoring, strict monitoring of joint cargo examinations, and the dismantling of illegal checkpoints and extortion points have all contributed to the improvement of the sector,” he said.
