The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) launched its electronic auction on July 3, 2017, on a happy note, believing it was giving tax payers equal chance of bidding for seized items and overtime cargoes.
At exactly 12:00 noon, the Comptroller General of Customs (CGC), Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd) declared the bidding platform, https.app.trade.gov.ng/eauction, open, noting that it was to last for 48 hours after which successful winners for the first around would be announced.
Shortly after, many complaints began to trail the process as eligible bidders who had their Tax Identification Number (TIN) validated by the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) said they could not continue to the stage of bidding after login-in to the system.
A quick survey of the complaints which went on for the first two weeks of the exercise pointed to the fact that most banks that the Customs said had declared their readiness to participate before the platform was commissioned, had not connected to the site. Then, there was the issue of overbidding believed to be fraudulent.
Some participants of the electronic auction platform who spoke to Daily Trust on Sunday lamented their inability to access some features and make payments on the website, especially the embedded e-wallet system.
Speaking with our reporter, a participant, Mr Alex Odugbo, in Abuja, said despite his valid Tax Identification Number (TIN), he had issues recharging his e-wallet.
“I cannot complete the e-wallet funding step and that means I am cut off from bidding. The banks are having issues doing this e-wallet process,” he said.
Equally, Mr Kayode Damusa, a resident in New Karu area of Nasarawa State attributed his challenge to poor network, saying he could not connect to the server to complete his process.
The Service spokesman, Mr Joseph Attah, admitted the e-wallet link-up challenge.
He noted that the 23 Customs duty collecting banks were trained and involved in the user acceptability test of the platform along with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“Throughout this period, no bank indicated any problem with the platform. However, upon launch of the platform, https.app.trade.gov.ng/eauction, only Jaiz Bank was discovered to be ready and active on the platform,” he said.
The Customs Service spokesman said to address this, it wrote to the other banks requesting them to “integrate with the e-auction application for the recharging of e-wallet”.
He added that another letter was sent to the CBN, seeking to confirm the readiness of the commercial banks. In the update, Attah said the Service was told the banks are still sorting out ‘‘technical problem to hook up to the platform.”
Despite hitches, bidders emerge
The Service said despite the challenges, 43 winners emerged in the first 48 hours of the bidding period. The NCS uploaded 130 vehicles, from which 43 were bided for and won.
“While 282 people registered, 268 were enabled to generate e-wallet assessment. Out of 177 that recharged their e-wallets, 68 bided and 43 emerged as winners,” The Customs authourities said.
After the second round of bidding, Customs said it recorded 115 winners. The Service noted that the second round showed improvement over the first. NCS also generated N25.3 million from the auction of 158 vehicles which was apparently through Jaiz Bank alone. Data provided on the third round of the exercise indicated 2,001 bidders registered of which 1,919 were been enabled to bid for the items.
The Service congratulated winners who have paid and collected their vehicles and looks forward to promptly releasing more items to winners.
Ali summons banks’ chiefs, says its sabotage
The many complaints forced the CGC, Col. ,Ali to summon top bank executives to the Customs headquarters in Abuja to resolve the lag that deprived many Nigerians of participating in the auction process.
Ali, who was visibly unhappy about the issue, expressed concerns over the refusal of the banks to join the auction platform two weeks after it commenced, thereby depriving many Nigerians of participating.
While he accused the banks of sabotaging the Service’s effort at collecting revenue for the federation, he said, “I am surprised and I don’t know what to say. This is economic sabotage. The money you are going to collect is not coming to Customs, it is not coming to me as a person, it is going to the federation account that will be distributed to the three tiers of government. And you have prevented that.”
He noted that only Jaiz Bank joined the platform when the exercise commenced and allowed its customers participate in the auction process.
He said the hitch had made some bidders to complain of the process being skewed to favour northerners and Muslims.
“I want to know if there are problems, and what are the problems,” he said.
In their responses, the banks’ executives said they had had technical challenges linking up the e-wallet system with the portal. The challenge was not resolved during the over one month user acceptability test of the platform.
Although Ali refused to say how much the Service lost with the setback, he noted that the Service was monitoring the platform and ensuring changes that would improve it.
Shortly after the meeting ended, 18 banks confirmed their presence on the E-Auction portal with the exception of Zenith and Standard Chartered Bank which said they were getting ready then. In an update on Friday, the spokesman, Mr Attah said 254 winners have been recorded after four weeks of the auction process with over N49 million recorded as revenue generated.
He also confirmed that 19 banks have keyed into the platform as 6,560 bidders have been able to recharge their e-wallet worth of N1,000 administration fee to participate in the bidding.
“With 19 commercial banks hooked to the platform, interested bidders now have the option of choosing banks nearest to them for ease of transactions,” he said.
Fraudulent bidders unravelled
The NCS also said it unravelled fraudulent bidders who raised the bid to higher than an item’s worth so that their cronies who were the second highest bidder could win the item.
Col. Ali said the fraudulent bidders infiltrated the process by conniving with one another to circumvent the transparency of the process.
He said: “For over bidding, we have discovered that no matter what you do, Nigerians will always want to cut corners.”
“The Service discovered from the bidding pattern and collated complaints from stakeholders that the system is being abused by some fraudulent persons. Some bidders were discovered to have made outrageous bidding for some items put up for auction in a bid to scare other bidders away.
“This act makes it possible for such fraudulent bidders to make the items available for the second highest bidder, who they may have connived with,” a statement issued after the meeting said.
The NCS boss said henceforth, people who bid much more than an item’s worth will be permanently delisted from the portal, while the item will revert to a pre-bidding status without any option of the second or reserved bidder.
The system will be reprogrammed to stop the second highest bidder from claiming the item. Once the winner fails to pay within five working days, the item automatically reverts for re-uploading and fresh bidding, the Service said.
“Interestingly, the system is recording the identities of these fraudulent bidders through submitted information from the Tax Identification Numbers (TIN). Such numbers will be deactivated as well as blocked from any further transaction with NCS.
‘‘While those fraudulent bidders risk prosecution, genuine bidders are assured of the Service determination to ensure the success of the online auction process,” NCS noted in a statement.
