A maritime operator and the Public Affairs Officer (PAO) of the SGS Scanning Limited, Mr Adeola Adeku has blamed clearing agents for delays recorded in the clearing of cargo both at Onne and Port Harcourt Wharf.

Mr Adeku who disclosed this to The Tide in Port Harcourt, said that clearing agents do not most of the time present cargoes for scanning on time, thereby putting pressure on operators later, which usually leads to delay.

According to him, “experience has shown that cargoes are not normally presented for scanning by the clearing agents on time until later. This puts pressure on the scanning operators to cope with the rush at the closing time.”

He said all hands must be on deck and that every stakeholders” in the clearing of cargoes must be prompt to duties, if they federal governments 48 hours cargo clearing policy must succeed.

Adeku however urged all clearing agents to make use of the morning when cargoes can be cleared without queues or delays so as to enable cargo to leave the Port in good time.

Other areas he said they also experience delay is in the rejection of Form “M” and final document, which has made the process of cargo clearing to be sluggish.

He also called on importers to ensure that submit complete details of documents to the bank in the first place, adding that his company, SGS is poised to providing training to banks.

Adeku posited that SGS has introduced a form M pre-checking service for banks, adding that bank branches may submit an advance copy of the form ‘M’ and profoma invoice to SGS for pre-check to ensure that it is acceptable before sending it to their head office in Lagos.

According to him, this will avoid rejection of the from, as the advance copy can either be submitted to the SGS offices in Port Harcourt.

Corlins Walter