The Former Governing Council Chairman of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) Hakeem Olanrewaju has said the federal government continues budgetary allocation to CRFFN is responsible for the corruption woes in the Council.
Olanrewaju made this known in a statement on Thursday. He observed that approximately the amount used to kick start the administrative life of the CRFFN between the year 2008 and 2012 (of the first and second Governing Council) was in the average of N200 million to N250 million.
Olanrewaju argued that out of this approximated amount; staff were recruited and salaries promptly paid, official vehicles were purchased, capacity building programs were conducted, membership with the International Federation of Freight Forwarding Associations (FIATA) formalized office structures were rented across the zones and operational head offices rented in Lagos and Abuja, international professional exchange programs attended among others.
According to him, “Practitioners now find it more profitable to do everything humanly possible to get elected into the Governing Council rather than face their professional practices. this growing trend is dangerous and this albatross has to be stopped"
“From what is obtainable elsewhere amongst the comity of freight forwarding nations, we do not really need the gigantic edifices (tagged headquarters & zonal administrative offices and institutes) being put in place.”
“What governs a professional Council is the principle of discipline, transparency, moderation, and prudence; especially when it comes to financial management and not the spirit of negligence, squandering and recklessness. We ought to be careful and conscious of the fact that our budgets should correspond with our yearly income via subscriptions, enforcement of regulatory sanctions, sales of professional publications, professional levies, donations, corporate brand materials, etc.”
The former Governing Council Chairman expressed regret that 12 years after the registration of the CRFFN with the umbrella body, the FIATA, what they could point to the international body which had concluded a trained the trainer program followed by the accreditation of professional training institutions across the geo-political zones of the nation was an endless ongoing projects of the CRFFN.
“What a shame of a profession, even worse, when we discover that even the CRFFN yearly budgetary is way far above that of FIATA yearly budget, what an irony of professional inclination.
“Let me shock you by saying that the government is massively corrupting the leadership of the freight forwarders cum the practitioners, doing so in an obvious subtle manner aka over-inflated project contracts and elephant projects.
“Consequently, the practitioners now find it much rewarding and most profitable to do everything humanly possible to get elected into the Governing Council rather than face its professional practice" he noted.
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