To satisfy their age-old appetite of greed, Custom Officers at our ports in are in a culture of one-for-me-one-you compelling clearing agents to pay commissions to them for client service offered them by the public service institution.
Such is the widespread nature of the deal that some disenchanted clearing officers have decided to dare the Customs Officers and go to town with the information, in saving their livelihoods and incomes from the gangsters at our ports.
The modus operandi of the Customs Officers is that after working on documents submitted by the clearing agents, they take note of it and compel them to meet them at a joint or canteen to return some of the earnings made by the clearing agent.
In some cases, it also means falsifying costs or downsizing tariffs, in favour of importer and to the detriment of the State.
DAYBREAK have discreet information that the clearing agents are also feeding the state intelligence services at the ports with a list of those Customs Officers guilty of the act for purposes of getting the appropriate state authorities to initiate a process of disciplining the greedy bastards.
