The House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise and the Public Accounts Committee of the Senate have charged Cotecna Destination Inspection Limited (CDIL) to ensure the success of the Destination Inspection (DI) scheme reintroduced by the federal government in 2006.

The two committees, which carried out a fact finding mission on the company's facilities in Lagos at different times, told the management that government would not accept any excuses, because, with the dwindling fortunes of the oil and gas industry worldwide due to the global economic crisis, government would rely so much on import duty revenue.

CDIL, a service provider under Nigeria 's Destination Inspection (DI) scheme has a seven-year Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract with the Federal Government, which entails the Computer Risk Management System (CRMS).

Under the contract, which commenced in 2006 following the take-off of the DI Scheme the company is to facilitate trade, install both mobile and fixed scanners and also build capacity, which entails the officers and men of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) who would take-over the operations.

When the House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise recently visited Cotecna facilities at the Apapa port and Ashaye located at the Tin Can Island port, they went to find out the progress made so far in the construction of the fixed scanners.

Commending the company for the progress made so far, chairman of the committee, Yakubu Dogara, charged the company not to rest on its oars in ensuring the success of the scheme.

The chairman promised that the government on its part would do everything possible to ensure efficient and timely delivery of consignments at the nation's seaports, especially by providing the enabling environment for the port industry to thrive.

The chairman, who spoke after the inspection said that Cotecna had done very well, as it has kept faith with terms of the contract, especially in terms of the provision of both mobile and fixed scanners.

Disclosing that the committee was not doing any oversight function in inspecting the scanners, as they are on a fact finding mission to find out the extent of work, Dogara also observed that the fixed scanners, which are of 9.0 MEV were far higher than the mobile scanners and are of higher precision than what the committee saw at the Rotterdam Port when it visited.

Also, when the Senate Committee on Public Accounts visited, Caleb Zagi, urged Cotecna not to relent in its efforts to offer adequate training to customs officers to enable a smooth and successful transfer of the Project.

He also charged the customs authority to live up to expectation and take advantage of training opportunities provided by the Service Providers to prepare it for an effective taking over as agreed with the Government.

The Public Accounts Committee of the Senate applauded CDIL for its solid dedication to trade facilitation and overall commitment to quality service delivery at the nation's ports.

Leading a delegation of senators during a recent inspection of Cotecna's facilities and services, Ahmad Lawan, Chairman of the committee expressed satisfaction on the quality of services and infrastructure put in place by the trade inspection firm.

The three-day visit was a follow up to the public hearing conducted in May by the committee especially as it relates to the utilisation of the one percent CISS Levy Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The Federal Government pays the service providers from the CISS Account.

Lawan remarked that, "With the submission and presentations made by COTECNA at the public hearing and the physical verification exercise, the committee is satisfied with the services of the firm. We enjoin Cotecna to keep up the pace of its construction works at the fixed scanner sites and general service delivery at the ports. This, we believe will ensure an efficient handover to the Nigeria Customs at the end of the contract period".

Managing director of the company Tayo Yahaya Rabiu, who conducted the committees members round the project, emphasised that Cotecna was continuously willing and working to offer extra values to the people and government of Nigeria.

According to him, the company understands that the success of Destination Inspection in Nigeria will reinforce the credibility of the scheme globally as an entity, saying that the company will therefore not relent in its obligations to ensure success and sustainability for the project even after the phase of the contract.

He told them the project would have been completed by now but for the delay in the provision of a piece of land for the project, adding that the fixed scanners would be completed 18 months after the take-off of the contract, adding that the fixed scanners projects would be ready for inauguration by December, 2009.

The managing director, who assured that the contract is of international standards, noted that he is a Nigerian and that if in future it is discovered that the project is substandard, people would ask him questions, which he must not run away from the country being his one and only home.

Reiterating the commitment of the company to capacity building for customs officers most importantly in technical areas, Rabiu said that the first set of incubation training on valuation and HS Classification will commence this August at the Valuation and Classification Centre of Excellence established by the company and located in Abuja.

In view of the company's drive to train and build capacity for customs officers especially in honing their skills on use of modern trade inspection technologies, he pointed out that about 1800 officers are expected to be trained in different areas between the second half of 2009 and year 2012.

Highlighting the company's value added services initiated to ensure prompt and exact duties and taxes payments on Imports to boost government's revenue, the Cotecna boss said the fixed scanner site construction in Apapa would be completed and launched by December 2009, while Tincan Port fixed scanner which was also under construction would be delivered by the second quarter of 2010.

The two fixed scanners are to be dual-vision 9 MeV, the latest in the World, best in Africa and equipped with radiation detection, material discrimination and data management system options.

The COTECNA Group, one of the world's leading international trade inspection companies, offers a wide range of trade facilitation services, trade security services and quality certification standards.

Cotecna is a pioneer in areas such as risk management, destination inspection and scanner integration projects and also offers Customs modernisation programmes, Customs valuation assistance, trade security solutions and commercial inspections.

The Cotecna Group has a combined workforce of about 4,000 employees and agents in close to 100 offices and holds 16 government inspection contracts.