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Livemint : Shipping Corp bribes customs to clear ships : Sept 19,2007 mint EXCLUSIVE - VIGILANCE REVIEW - Shipping Corp bribes customs to clear ships B Y K .P . N ARAYANA K UMAR narayana.k@livemint.com ························· NEW DELHI The Shipping Corp. of India Ltd (SCI), a public sector undertaking (PSU) controlled by the Union government, has admitted it is forced to pay bribes to government customs and excise officers in ports across the country in order to get its shipments cleared in a timely manner. The odd situation in which a government undertaking is openly acknowledging-and funding-graft in another government department, was exposed when a Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) team conducted a review of an internal audit conducted by SCI in December. In that internal audit, SCI officers had acknowledged that they were forced to pay what is known as "speed money" at ports, using private shipping agents as the conduit. "Speed money" is one of the worst-kept secrets of the shipping industry, says former director general of shipping J.S. Gill. "Unless you weed out corruption at the ports, our logistics cost will never be under control. If you allow the bribe takers to dictate terms, then they can hold any vessel to ransom," Gill adds. In an ironical twist, the CVC has noted that the shipping agents are also inflating the amount of such bribes paid on behalf of SCI in order to claim larger reimbursements. After its review, the CVC objected to the payments, which are said to average about Rs25 crore every year, noting that the "prospect of a PSU reimbursing such payments to government servants is not a palatable one." A high-ranking official of SCI, who said he didn't want to be identified because "speed money was a rather touchy issue in the government", told Mint that officers were indeed forced to pay bribes at ports. "If we don't pay the bribe, then our ships would be held up for days together," he said. "Then we will have losses in crores for not making these payments." The official added that SCI could lose up to Rs20 lakh on a Panamax vessel if it were to be held up for a day, whereas the "speed money" paid per day Publication : Livemint; section : Front; Pg : 1; Date : 19/9/07 URL : http://epaper.livemint.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=19_09_2007_001_014&typ=0&pub=422 |
