The Joint Committee of the Senate Committees on Finance, Trade and Investment, Gas, Petroleum Upstream, Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions, Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, and Customs, Excise and Tariff during an investigative public hearing organised by the committee was yesterday told that Nigeria had no record of oil and non-oil products exports carried out in the country since June 2015.
“Mr. Usman Ndanusa, who is a deputy director in the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, who represented the ministry at the investigative hearing, posited that the country had since June 2015, been exporting its oil and non-oil products without measurement and documentation.
He said the development was sequel to the disengagement of pre-shipment inspection agents at the various export terminals in the country and their subsequent replacement with agents who were merely asked by the federal government without legal and constitutional backing to carry out the pre-shipment work at the terminals.
According to him, since their engagements had no backing of the law, couple with the fact that the Monitoring and Evaluation Agents, being the federal government workers expected to monitor the activities of the pre – shipment inspection agents, were not working over non payment of entitlements, there was no one to undertake supervision of the agents.
The development, he noted, left the country at the mercy of the agents.
He also disclosed that the country had no control of measurement of its oil and non-oil export commodities, noting most of the terminals across the country had no comprehensive metering systems. ”
Details soon
