A new international firm is scheduled to take up post in Aqaba by the beginning of February to monitor Iraqi-bound goods, in lieu of Lloyd's Register, a senior official said on Saturday. “The new contract is expected to cost one quarter of what we paid for the British firm Lloyd's,” which cost the treasury $2.35 million each year, the source told the Jordan Times.
He said that within the next ten days, the government would sift through ten bidders for the job from Europe, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey. “According to our criteria,” he explained, “the chosen contractor should be credible, a fast operator, technically viable with sufficient experience and fewer employees.”
The government, which late last year decided not to renew the annual contract with Lloyd's Register, had hoped that this British firm will not be replaced. It maintains that after 10 years of compliance with the UN embargo on Iraq, the Kingdom and its only maritime outlet should be free of international inspectors — a requirement of the UN Sanctions Committee.
But officials here said the committee raised the issue of the absence of Lloyd's inspectors and expressed concern about a lack of monitoring in the Gulf of Aqaba. “They asked us about alternatives and we will have to contract another firm,” said one official on condition of anonymity. Over the past two months, Iraq-bound goods have been cleared and monitored at the berths by Customs Department personnel.
Mohammad Kaladeh, chief commissioner of the Aqaba Special Economic Zone (ASEZ), said early this month that the highest bidders offered to take fees that amounted to no more than 25 percent of what Lloyd's had charged.
When the government sought to end Lloyd's operations, it asked the UN to “justify why Jordan alone should remain subject to international monitoring.” Officials here point to the ease with which goods, unchecked, enter the Iraqi market from Syria, Turkey, Iran and Gulf states.
Aqaba, Iraq's principal maritime outlet before the 1990 Gulf War has been operating at less than a quarter of its 20-million ton capacity. Jordan has consistently complained that Lloyd's inspections severely crippled the flow of trade with Iraq, the Kingdom's key trade partner, owing to the length and expense of the inspections, which are a disincentive for traders to ship goods through the port.
Lloyd's inspection was introduced in the mid-1990s as the “lesser of two evils” alternative, after Jordan had protested against offshore inspections of Aqaba-bound cargo conducted by US and British naval units. — ( Jordan Times )
By Saad G. Hattar
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
