Export verification agents doing terrible job despite earning billions

[Photo: Courtesy]

An audit of firms contracted to verify imported goods from their countries of origin has revealed major operational gaps.

That is despite charging huge costs for assessing the quality of the goods, which is 0.5 per cent of the value of the imports.

Collectively, the foreign verification agents pocket billions from inspecting goods destined to Kenya every year.

The problems identified during the tour by board members of Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) include inconsistent application of issued guidelines.

The National Standards Council, which is the Kebs board, had travelled to major source markets to probe how fake products were allowed passage through issuance of Pre-export Verification of Conformity certificates.

The board also discovered that some of the goods submitted for inspection were actually substituted before being packaged into containers for shipping.

Bernard Nguyo, the acting managing director of Kebs, said that while the firms have the requisite technical capacities, smaller challenges like communication across branches in different regional offices were unavoidable.

Already, the weakness has led to the suspension of services offered by two pre-export verification contractors, who have blamed rivals for their owes.

“We have directed some contractors to address their operational weaknesses. Others have been suspended,” said Nguyo in an interview.

He spoke amid soaring anguish among traders whose cargo has been detained by Kenya Ports Authority for lack of conformity certificates.

Some traders have called on President Uhuru Kenyatta to do away with inspection of import goods at source; calls the President is said to have rejected.

“Pre-export inspection is intended to ensure that bad products are caught and remain at source, rather than having to return them from here,” said Nguyo.

China Certification and Inspections Group Company and another Swiss firm, Société Générale de Surveillance SA, were suspended last October for failure to inspect goods before shipment into Kenya.

They were banned from some Asian countries – the source of most of the sub-standard imported goods.

An audit of firms contracted to verify imported goods from their countries of origin has revealed major operational gaps.

That is despite charging huge costs for assessing the quality of the goods, which is 0.5 per cent of the value of the imports.

Collectively, the foreign verification agents pocket billions from inspecting goods destined to Kenya every year.

The problems identified during the tour by board members of Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) include inconsistent application of issued guidelines.

The National Standards Council, which is the Kebs board, had travelled to major source markets to probe how fake products were allowed passage through issuance of Pre-export Verification of Conformity certificates.

The board also discovered that some of the goods submitted for inspection were actually substituted before being packaged into containers for shipping.

Bernard Nguyo, the acting managing director of Kebs, said that while the firms have the requisite technical capacities, smaller challenges like communication across branches in different regional offices were unavoidable.

Already, the weakness has led to the suspension of services offered by two pre-export verification contractors, who have blamed rivals for their owes.

“We have directed some contractors to address their operational weaknesses. Others have been suspended,” said Nguyo in an interview.

He spoke amid soaring anguish among traders whose cargo has been detained by Kenya Ports Authority for lack of conformity certificates.

Some traders have called on President Uhuru Kenyatta to do away with inspection of import goods at source; calls the President is said to have rejected.

“Pre-export inspection is intended to ensure that bad products are caught and remain at source, rather than having to return them from here,” said Nguyo.

China Certification and Inspections Group Company and another Swiss firm, Société Générale de Surveillance SA, were suspended last October for failure to inspect goods before shipment into Kenya.

They were banned from some Asian countries – the source of most of the sub-standard imported goods.