7 News Belize

Customs at the Crossroad
posted (January 26, 2010)

Today is International Customs Day which is really just a celebration of government’s number one revenue earner. But not even the Ministry of Finance is celebrating. That’s because Customs revenue are down – leading government to what observers predict will be a significant shortfall in revenue at the end of the financial year. Today I found out what the department plans to do about it.

Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
The celebration of International Customs Day comes at a time in Belize when the Belize Customs Department is facing many challenges; case in point a reduction in imports and revenues.

Gregory Gibson, Comptroller of Customs
“Primarily that is a reflection of the global economy. Naturally we have heard throughout the country that we have had less remittances and there is a slowdown in tourism and all of these things contribute to the demand for our products. If there is no demand for products, then importation consequently drops.”

Today Comptroller of Customs Gregory Gibson says there is a need to be more accountable, transparent and efficient but that through the Belize Customs and Reform and Modernization Project they hope to address all three areas including the reduction in imports and revenues.

Gregory Gibson,
“I think the situation has seen a combination of factors which is timely, both the modernisation which addresses efficiency and transparency and I think if we can say we are 80% efficient then we can try to be 100% efficient by the processes that we are putting in place. Well trade facilitation is the biggest one. That will cut tremendous time down and cost; importation cost and the processing of goods and that is the biggest one. We are talking about post audit which will go to great lengths in verifying and attacking Customs fraud and included in that is the modernization and harmonization of our laws which will give the department additional powers to address the modern and creative ways taxes have been avoided.”

The department is also looking forward to improving performance through a working partnership with Customs and the business community.

Gregory Gibson,
“I do not know if we can boast that there has always been misunderstanding and misconceptions and this is what seek today to put shoulder to shoulder to ask each other to come forth and express their reservations, your concerns, and let us see how we can move forward working together.”

Then there is the issue of internal corruption and….

Jacqueline Godwin,
“We see shipments arriving under fictitious names and they are not cleared. What’s going on?”

Gregory Gibson,
“Well we must recognize that Belize is in the middle of a transhipment route for drugs. We must also recognize that hard times attracts more creativity and honest people might become dishonest in trying to make ends meet and so these are the challenges that come both within Belize and outside of our borders and Belize as a transhipment point has to face those situations and be in a position to deal with it. That individuals have imported shipments under false names and then have not come forward to claim it, reflects to some extent our strength and perhaps the ability to detect these things.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
“One observer pointed to me that the reason why the shipments are not being cleared by anyone is that they are waiting for a corrupt officer but that seems to be diminishing as time goes on. You guys seem to be doing your own kind of cleanup to make sure that what I think is a serious criticism that has been levied against the Department is no longer there and that is corrupt officers.”

Gregory Gibson,
“Yes we have not been afraid to talk about corruption and we have not been afraid to take steps to eradicate it but we must recognize that there will be individuals who will be daring and it is for us in strengthening and what I spoke about the code of conduct we are introducing. These are steps to make sure that officers do the right thing, that they are held to account, and we have interdicted a number of officers in that regard.”

On a lighter note, today’s occasion was to highlight the work conducted by the department and its staff.

Gregory Gibson,
“The importance of today is huge because we are a part of the global community and it recognizes Customs officers for what they are, they are misrepresentations of who we are and what we do. And while we are members of the community, it is good to showcase our abilities and express to the general public that you can come in and see that we are not all stern and stiff, we are quite friendly and warm inside.”

Today’s displays were not on the scale of the exhibition in the first observance of 2009. Comptroller of Customs Gregory Gibson says the small presentation may have been due to some last minute distractions.

In other news from Customs, one of the unclaimed shipment discussed in the interview with Comptroller Gibson remains on the compound. In our newscast last week the Customs Department confirmed that a box stuffed with pseudo–ephedrine tablets, a total of ten thousand three hundred and fifty five pills had come out of Singapore via a freight service and was delivered to the PGIA. As noted in the story it was consigned to the name of a Chinese person and it had a King’s Park address but investigations have revealed that both the name and address are fictitious. The value of the still unclaimed package is estimated to be forty one thousand dollars.

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