Wednesday, March 10, 2021 / 08:24 AM / by CIPE / Header ImageCredit: CIPE

Nigerialoses up to $1.95 billion USD in government revenue and $8.15 billion USD inprivate sector revenue annually due to corruption at the Nigerian ports. Moneylost because of illicit financial flows at ports weighs very heavily on theeconomy of a country that as of May 2020 projects to borrow more than $14.1billion USD to finance the 2020 budget[ii]. These losses severely constrictgovernment programs and the capacity to develop and improve much-needed publicinfrastructure. At the same time, corruption at the ports can operate as amajor deterrent to sustainable returns on foreign direct investment.

In aneffort to explore solutions to the highly corrupt business environment,stakeholders including the Technical Unit on Governance and Anti-CorruptionReform (TUGAR), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Bureau ofPublic Procurement (BPP), the Independent Corrupt Practices and other RelatedOffences Commission (ICPC), the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the NigerianShippers' Council (NSC), and the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN)carried out a corruption risk assessment with a particular focus on maritimeoperations. The risk assessment identified major areas where corruption was aprevalent risk in the business ecosystem, which MACN addressed throughcollective action efforts in collaboration with the NSC and all governmentagencies operating in the maritime sector.

Amongother initiatives, the collaboration resulted in the introduction of StandardOperating Procedures (SOPs) for port operators and a Grievance ReportingMechanism (GRM) to uphold the standards set by the SOPs. Following theestablishment of the GRM, the Port Service Support Portal (PSSP) was created asa web portal to administer the complaint collection and communication processunder the management and coordination of the NSC. The web portal was created asa one stop shop to resolve complaints in the port industry professionally,confidentially, and efficiently and to increase the levels of accountability ofport officials in their adherence to the SOPs. Throughout this report, whenauthors refer to the PSSP web portal, they are referring to the web portal ofthe Port Service Support Portal (PSSP) and are not referencing any otherreporting channels.

Thisreport set out to evaluate the effectiveness of the web portal as a monitoringand tracking tool to support the GRM in reducing corruption and enhancingefficiency in the complaint resolution process. However, web portal data is notavailable online and was not made accessible to stakeholders within thetimeframe of this report. After several weeks of unsuccessful attempts toaccess data from the web portal, the focus of the study shifted to theinitiative's background and potential for success when implemented effectively.This report examines data from MACN's internal reporting mechanism and recordsof walk-in complaints filed with the NSC, two complaint mechanisms separatefrom the web portal itself. The authors of this report were provided only ahigh-level summary of the PSSP web portal's data indicating the total number ofcomplaints logged per year from 2017-2019. In light of the absence of detailedinformation, the authors were unable to fully evaluate the effectiveness of thePSSP web portal as an accountability and resolution mechanism for reinforcingthe SOPs.

Despite alack of direct data from the web portal, research conducted for this reportclearly indicates that the web portal when evaluated on its own, is currentlyunable to achieve its goals of reducing corruption and increasing efficiency.By outlining the history and context of the initiative and examiningrecommended frameworks for similar mechanisms in other regions, this reportshines light on several critical improvement opportunities for the PSSP webportal. As the primary tool for monitoring the consistent and appropriate useof the SOPs, it is imperative that the GRM and PSSP web portal become a trustedand effective complaint management system in order to realize the goals ofminimizing the risks and opportunities for corruption and restoring confidenceand trust among port users.

DownloadFull PDF Report Here

Credit:

The report Tackling Corruption in theNigerian Ports first appeared in CIPE.ORG on April 12, 2020.

Download PDF Copy of Port Reform Report

1.        Operations At Nigerian Sea Ports & Terminals: Ports Users Survey Report - Proshare

2.       Operations At Nigerian Sea Ports & Terminals: Ports Users Survey Report - CBi

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