(Pictured, above) Meheretab Teklu (left), the newly appointed director general of Modjo Dry Port & Terminal as of August 7, 2013. He replaced Getaneh Abat (right), who was fired a month ago for alleged inefficiency and partiality in providing services to customers
There has been a variety of issues at the Modjo Dry Port, since the implementation of the multi-modal system
By ELLENI ARAYA - Published on August 18, 2013
Modjo Dry Port & Terminal, which is embroiled in a disciplinary investigation of eleven of its officials, appointed a new director general, Meheretab Teklu, as of August 7, 2013. He will replace Getaneh Abat, who was fired around a month ago.
Meheretab is leaving his position as director of Driver’s Permit Competency Directorate at the Federal Transport Authority (FTA) to assume his new post, where he is expected to bring changes in service delivery.
Alleged inefficiency and partiality in providing services to customers, described as emanating from rent seeking behaviour, was what his predecessor was fired for a month ago. Ten more officials at Modjo are also under investigation by officials higher up in the Ethiopian Shipping & Logistics Services Enterprise (ESLSE) for the same reason, with three of them suspended and seven moved to different posts. Suspended officials include co-ordinators who oversaw trucks and the unloading of containers. Such measures followed a nine-month employee performance evaluation, from June 4 to 6, 2013.
Although a regular practice every year, the evaluation conducted this year had a more in-depth aspect to it. Desalegn Tefera, deputy CEO of port & operation services at the ESLSE, who chaired the evaluation meeting, cited the piles of complaints received by the ESLSE from customers, as having triggered the in-depth evaluation.
“Customers complained of poor services and inefficiency,” he told Fortune.
The complaints the ESLSE received were echoed by some employees during the evaluation. They stated that officials sometimes favoured certain customers for undue benefits, while others have to endure very sluggish services to unload containers and get clearance, according to Desalegn and a Modjo Dry port employee that Fortune talked to.
“The ESLSE commenced investigations into the allegations after looking over files and audit reports. When the files and audit reports proved some of the allegations true, Getaneh was let go,” says Desalegn.
Getaneh was the third general director of the dry port, located 73 km east of Addis, which started operations in 2009 after being constructed at a cost of 20 million Br.
Modjo was the first dry port to be built by the government, following a 2007 study by the then Ministry of Transport & Communication (MoTC). At the time, they suggested that in-land ports that handle customs inspections, the documentation of cargo and packaging for import export, could save up to seven or eight dollars in foreign currency for every container that passes through Djibouti. This is achievd by cutting the time the container spends over there accruing demurrage costs.
Although other satellite ports have been set up in Comet (Addis Abeba); Gelan, in the Oromia Special Zone, 25Km east of the capital; Dire Dawa, 317Km east of Addis; Mekelle, 780Km north of Addis and Kombolcha, 380Km north of Addis, it is still Modjo that handles 61.9pc of all containers coming through the dry ports.
Moreover, Modjo accommodated 26.9pc of the 155,269 twenty-feet-equivalent (teu) containers imported into the country in 2012/13.
Getaneh headed the Dry Port for the past two years, during which time the ESLSE had to deal with settling the huge difficulties it faced when implementing the multi-modal system (MTS) on a full scale. The system uses a single operator, in Ethiopia’s case the ESLSE, for the delivery of goods, from the port of origin to an inland port, through multiple transportation systems. All importers in Ethiopia were required to use the ESLSE’s services and receive goods from dry ports.
Initially, the ESLSE had difficulty lifting goods fast enough from Djibouti port, leaving as many as 22,000 containers stockpiled at the port, in July 2012, for lack of adequate transporters. The ESLSE would significantly improve this, cutting down the average waiting time at Djibouti to around six days. Its problem was then transferred to Modjo, since importers would not pick up their goods. In April 2013, the average waiting time at Modjo was 49 days, whereas the intention was to keep it down to 15 days. There was a backlog of 40 containers piling up daily at the dry port, which has the capacity to carry 6,300 teu containers, stacked in three rows.
The ESLSE is currently working to increase the capacity and efficiency of the service, in order to ease the backlog and operate smoothly. During the past year it has started expansion works to increase its capacity to 15,000 teu containers, at a cost of half a million Br. This is only the cost of the first phase of the expansion project at Modjo, which is expected to cost a total of one billion Birr when completed.
It will be the new director general who is expected to oversee such expansion projects and other improvements.
Meheretab, a 47-year-old father of two, received a BA degree in automotive technology from the then Nazareth College and a masters in management from Addis Abeba University (AAU). He was a teacher of automotive technology at Wolliso Technical & Vocational School for over a decade before heading to the civil service.
It was after a two year stay at the Addis Abeba branch of the FTA, overseeing driver’s permit training, that he was able to move to FTA. He acted as director general of the FTA on a few occasions, when Kasahun Hailemariam, who holds the post, was away.
“With my experience in transport and logistics, I hope to be part of a team of officials at Modjo who contribute towards the efficiency of the operation transaction,” he told Fortune, referring to his new assignment. “It is a huge responsibility, since Modjo is the biggest import transport hub currently.”
He has not yet moved to Modjo to assume his new post, as he has been undertaking training with the ESLSE in Addis Abeba, since his post began.
Related articles
- New System to Smoothen Regional Trade
- Eliminating impediments to investment
- Rwanda, Ethiopia sign a trade pact
- H&M Looks to Source Clothing From Ethiopia
- Can trade make a difference in Africa?
- Kenya seeks to grow trade with Ethiopia
- Making Economic Integration Work in the Horn of Africa
- 50 Turkish textile factories to relocate in Ethiopia
- UNCTAD – Inter-African Trade Too Thin
- Djibouti-Ethiopia rail-line launched
- Is the private sector to blame for cargo sitting for so long in African ports?
- Exim Bank of India extends $300-m credit line to Ethiopia for rail link
- Brazil Development Bank Gives $1 Billion to Ethiopia Rail
- Agreement Signed For US$2.3 Billion Chinese Loan For 756-KM Addis-Djibouti Railway
- Chinese investment creates a new global hub in Ethiopia
- The Next Shanghai May Be in Africa
- Dry Port Enterprise Getting Ports in Mekelle, Dire Dawa
- Ethiopian Shipping to Expand to New Ports
- Text Message Technology to Assist Imports
- Second Warehouse Coming to Modjo Dry Port
- More Dry Ports Under Consideration
- Ethiopia, Djibouti form a joint railway commission
