In 2003, when the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) unjustly hiked its fees by about 50 per cent despite its glaring ineptitude, the tension created at that time by that inglorious act was doused, in the hope that CAC would be able to 'enhance its service delivery' as glowingly canvassed and promised.At that time, under the caption 'Hike in CAC fees', (the Guardian, August 19, 2003), the potent opinion of this writer was that:''the problem of CAC was that of overstaffing. Majority of the CAC staff are very idle and hardly stay on their seats. Touting is their preference and they make fabulous profit from this, to the detriment of the lawyers and other professionals who throng there daily to do one or two things for their clients. '. The staff do their work nonchalantly that one often wonders whether CAC is created for the business public or the public for CAC. Cashiers flagrantly abandon the counter (for long hours)'to make or answer private telephone calls, or to provide express service for private clients''To solve this problem, this writer continued ''The Anti-Corruption Commission (ICPC) needs to visit the CAC (offices)across the country. The first thing to do is to search the pockets of the staff on duty. They would be amazed at the large sum of money (meant for CAC matters) that would be found on them. Some make as much as N20,000 (Twenty thousand Naira) every day of the week (as profit). The next thing is to check their tables and drawers. They would find all manner of jobs like Reservation and Availability, completed documents for incorporation of business name and so on, which should have gone through the normal process, but highjacked and done at a price'. This writer concluded that '...The truth is that internal cleansing should not be limited to the police alone'.The hike then and the re-organisation thereafter, obviously yielded temporary results, and ameliorated some of the latent inefficiencies of CAC. Management embarked on certain radical changes such as retraining the entire workforce within and outside the country, and executing mass transfer of the over-bureaucratic staff from the headquarters to the states. Activities like reservation of business and company names, registration of companies and trustees, payment of Annual Returns and other post incorporation matters became easier to process both in Abuja and in the branches nationwide.But barely eight years down the line, the public witnessed a dramatic decline and saw that nothing seems to be left from the gains of that restructuring. In 2003 when CAC was considered to be nearing a dead end, no one knew that it would come to a stand still soon.CAC forms, which used to be sufficiently available now come in bits and can only be purchased after very long queues. Computers constantly break down. Incessant system disconnect between the headquarters and the branches become the order of the day. Reservation of names which could be done within seven days now take three to four months and sometimes get lost in the process. Registration of business names which could be done at trade fairs now take about seven to eight months, especially at the branches. Annual returns, which if paid at the branches, automatically reflect at the headquarters, is now a thing of the glorious past. Completed registration forms, which were immediately forwarded to Abuja for further processing, upon submission at the branches, now take donkey months. That is even when extra mobilisation is given to the overzealous staff. More devastating is when the jobs finally return and text messages are sent for collection, the staffs are usually not able to find them.If a state of emergency is not urgently declared at the CAC, the problems would have a far-reaching effect on the economy and the nation as a whole. Nigerians would just wake up one morning and discover that company promoters troop to the streets and carry placards to protest the stifling effect of CAC inactions. This very glaring inefficiency of the CAC has pitched many entrepreneurs against the lawyers and other professionals, engaged to do something for them at the CAC. For instance, what reaction would be expected against a lawyer or other professional who cannot deliver, within two or three weeks, ordinary Certificate of Registration of business name' What happens to a client who urgently wants to register a business in order to benefit from a limited credit provided by government or a politician in his/her area' While, the reaction against the lawyer or other professional would obviously be unfriendly, vulgar and uncomplimentary, the impact on the entrepreneur or company promoter would be that of frustration.On Wednesday, 7 September, 2011, the public witnessed a melodrama at the CAC. Legal practitioners, working under the aegis of 'Lawyers for Conscience', had sent out text messages to all lawyers accredited to do business at the CAC with a call to boycott their services at the CAC from Thursday, 8 September, 2011, over what they described as the ''the deteriorating state of services' at the Commission'. Their plan, if not for the timely intervention of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), was to come out for a peaceful demonstration in Abuja and its environs, to press home their grievances and to intimate the Federal Government on the urgent need to overhaul the Commission and improve its service delivery. (See The Guardian 8 Sept, 2011, pg 19).CAC, as it is currently constituted is hampering business growth and killing the economy. It tacitly accepted that fact, when in response to its memo on the botched protest of Lawyers for Conscience, it wrote that ''management (i.e. the Commission) wishes to apologize to our esteemed customers over the delays being encountered in obtaining approval for availability of names and certified true copies of documents''The operational problems and the apparent disconnect between the headquarters and the branches need to be urgently solved by relevant modern technology. The CAC must generally be rebranded to be in tune with what operates in developed countries. The public apathy against the CAC, just like the one against the police, must be addressed.Infrastructure must be developed and a department, to supervise and monitor the activities of the workforce, must be established. CAC must have a feedback mechanism where the public can make known their grievances. The CAC of the moment is a great disservice to the nation and if nothing urgent is done, rather than enhance business, it would further destroy the much needed business growth in Nigeria.Ogunbowale is an Attorney in Lagos
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