Founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, has charged officers of the Nigeria Customs Service to mind their areas specialization.
Aniebonam gave the charge during a lecture on Integrity and Professionalism – A Panacea for Effective Customs Dutywhich he delivered to new Customs recruits at the Apapa Area Command last Monday.
He said that each custom officer has an area of comparative competence for which he has been specially trained but lamented that most customs officers abandon their specialization to take on areas that they are not trained on.
“What we find today is that most of the officers and men for example who should show professionalism in their jobs jettison this to dabble into areas that they are not best trained or assigned to. Many officers want to perform the function of a valuation officer as a good example. This arises from the fact that they believe that these are the areas that the “gravy” is. Integrity and professionalism is thrown to the dogs,” he said.
Aniebonam said that customs officers who do this create a clog in the laid down cargo clearance procedures and hinder efficient trade facilitation.
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