‘Electronic acknowledgement’ establishing whether 95,374 US military containers crossed into Afghanistan is missing in the system, reveals an official report, heightening the need to review the entire cargo handling process.
“From January 2007 to December 2010 cross-border electronic acknowledgement of 95,374 US military containers is missing in the system – 60.4% of the total cargo traffic,” states a report of the Federal Board of Revenue, recently submitted to the Supreme Court of Pakistan. During this period the US military transported over a 150,000 containers.
The figure is over and above the 28,808 missing commercial containers under Afghanistan Transit Trade as well as 18,995 NATO and International Security Assistant Force (Isaf) suspect non-commercial. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is presently determining the fate of ‘suspicious’ NATO/Isaf transactions and has so far found 3,396 containers belonging to these organisations missing.
“It appears that the computerised system put in place for proper reconciliation of cross-border transfer of US cargo was ignored by the authorities concerned,” says the report.
Unlike commercial cargo where goods declaration is filed with the Customs authorities, the US military is assigned a unique identification number for cargo clearance. After ‘gating out’ from Karachi port, the information is flashed on screens accessible to border collectorates. The report states that it is the responsibility of the border collectorates to record the ‘gate in’ time at border stations and then cross border events in the system using the ID assigned to the border collectorates.
FBR chairman Salman Siddique also confirmed to The Express Tribune that the electronic acknowledgement of 95,374 US military containers was missing in the system. “It is more a systematic issue as such massive missing of containers is not possible,” said Siddique.
He said after identifying the problem the headquarters would take appropriate action against the people responsible.
The US embassy spokesman was not available to comment on the findings of the report.
Analysts say the number of pilfered containers indicates the loopholes in the system that may cause serious security problems. Recently, former Home Minister Sindh Dr Zulfiqar Mirza alleged that a political party was involved in smuggling weapons in NATO containers.
An official of the FBR who is closely involved in investigation of the missing containers admitted that it was complete collapse of “command and control”. He added that the authorities were in the process of recommending to the Prime Minister to terminate the services of at least one senior FBR official who is allegedly involved in the scam.
He said under FBR’s regulations if an acknowledgement is outstanding against a vehicle or container, it cannot be used in cargo traffic again. He said that during the period under investigation this particular clause was suspended, adding, the FBR recently restored the condition.
A two-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan, is already hearing the containers scam. The FBR submitted the progress report on November 21 in the apex court.
The Chairman FBR submitted that approximately Rs55 billion loss has been caused to the exchequer in the containers scam.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2011.
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