The containers shipped into Mombasa port are so many, it makes sense to
improve the pre-shipment inspections at the ports of origin. PHOTO |
FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
A multi-agency team tasked with verifying containers at the
Inland Container Depot have now been forced to look for individual
owners of the consolidated goods after failing to track down the
consolidators.
This comes even as it
emerges that Kenya Bureau of Standards appointed pre-inspection agencies
in various parts of the world are earning $800 million annually for
carrying out goods inspection at the country of origin yet Kenyan
agencies conduct re-inspection.
The
agencies earn $800 per container, an amount paid by the importers. In
2018, the number of containers that entered the country stood at 1.2
million.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has
directed the Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Revenue Authority and Kebs to
honour pre-shipment inspections done by the standard’s body appointed
agents.
This follows complains that
re-inspection of goods when they arrive in Kenya is one of the causes of
container pileup at the ICD, something that has had adverse effects on
businesses.
Delays in releasing the
goods has resulted in massive losses for traders who are forced to pay
demurrage and other penalties averaging $682,369 per day.
“Imported goods should not be subjected to
additional inspection at the port of entry except for cases legitimately
suspected not to conform to the set standards,” said the president.
He
said the directive is intended to strike a balance between enhancing
the ease of doing business in Kenya and protection of the public from
harmful imports.
DIRECTIVE
However,
implementation of the directive on ending double inspection of cargo is
bound to be problematic considering the government is already at
loggerheads with some of the agents who it accuses of letting in
sub-standard goods to leave the country of origin having been issued
with a certificate of conformity (CoC).
The
disagreements emanate from the fact that the agents have been avoiding
to carry out inspection of every item on a container, opting for random
inspections.
In October last year,
the government indefinitely suspended and fined two pre-inspection
agencies for allowing sub-standard goods to enter the Kenyan market.
China
Certification and Inspections Group Company (CCIC) and Société Générale
de Surveillance SA (SGS) of Switzerland were suspended for failure to
inspect goods before they were allowed into the country.
The other Kebs appointed agents are Cotecna Inspection SA, Bureau Veritas and Intertek International Ltd.
While
the directive targets new cargo coming in, the process of releasing
containers currently at the ICD is giving the multi-agency team
sleepless nights due to missing consolidators.
Inability
to track down the consolidators is a clear demonstration of just how
chaotic and amorphous the process of importing consolidated cargo was,
and which gave rise to a vibrant tax evasion racket and importation of
counterfeit goods.
The multi-agency
team is working with individual cargo owners to verify the goods before
they can be released, a process that is expected to take months
considering some of the containers have been lying at the ICD for more
than a year.
The team is also having a
hard time in the verification process because majority of the
containers do not have the CoC that is issued to the consolidator when
the cargo is inspected at the country of origin.
The certificate of conformity is a mandatory requirement to facilitate clearance of good by both the KRA and Kebs.
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