Participants at the two day capacity building on compliance function and leadership for port officials in Calabar
By PATRICK ABANG, Calabar –
The Director, Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN), Vivek Menon, has commended the Federal Government over its reforms in the Nigeria Ports sector which have significantly reduced the cases of non compliance of Standard Operating Procedure.
Mr. Menon, who is also the Convention on Business Integrity ( CBI), gave the commendation on Friday in Calabar during a two day capacity building on compliance function and leadership for port official.
According to him, there’s severe consequences now unlike in the past. There are a lot of progress and impact that the reform has taken place in the port sector.
“In 2019, there were over 266 cases of non compliance in Ports sector to 128 cases in the subsequent years, 84 and reduced drastically to 50 last year
He lamented that despite all these efforts, “There are a lot of work to be done’. There are lots of undocumented trade going on in Nigeria but gave assurance that the nation is making significant progress in the Nigerian Ports.
In his remarks, the keynote speaker, Emmanuel Bosar said the purpose of the training workshop is how to work with Port officials to promote and improve compliance with Port officials.
He noted that similar training programmes have been organized in other places such as Lagos and Port-Hacourt.
Speaking in her welcome address, Jane Onwumere, the Head, Technical Unit of Governance and Anti Corruption Reforms (TUGAR), said the training is appropriate as it will improve on what is currently being done to improve port operations in Nigeria.
Mrs Oguntuberu, said “Since the conduct of the Corruption Risk Assessment in the Six Nigerian Seaports of (Lagos (Apapa and Tincan), Port Harcourt, Onne, Calabar and Warri), the Technical Unit on Governance and Anti-Corruption Reforms (TUGAR) and the Project Steering Committee (PSC) of the CRA Project have been working assiduously in driving the implementation of the recommendations/Integrity plan of the CRA report.
“This training programme is therefore appropriate and relevant to the current efforts to strengthen and improve the work that is currently being done.
“We are proud to be identified with this initiative because of our conviction is that this could lead to actionable steps and ensure corrective actions are taken where needed.
“It is also expected that the result of this training will Increase transparency and accountability in the port processes while also improving inter-agency cooperation and coordination”, she said.
