The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

GRAND Bahama’s private sector is lamenting that it has been “sent back to the 18th century” through having to clear all imports manually for the next month-and-a-half.

Businesses branded as a “nightmare” the prospect of having to clear good manually until the Electronic Single Window (ESW), or Click2Clear, is implemented on the island come September 1 after Bahamas Customs last week revealed the existing Electronic Customs Automated System (eCAS) system is “inoperable” and “beyond repair”.

Stephanie Ferguson, general manager at Phoenix Brokerage and Shipping in Grand Bahama, told Tribune Business that she will not pass the extra costs of manual clearance on to her customers because it is not their fault.

She described the biggest problem as “the amount of copies that we have to do, because they’re requesting more copies than would be normally requested”. With eCas gone for good, and Customs switching to Click2Clear system in September, Ms Ferguson said she was concerned that the transition will leave goods “manifested in the eCas system”.

Warning that this threatens more confusion and costs, Ms Ferguson added: “We normally charge a documentation fee, which covers copies and stuff. But, right now, we have to prepare manually what we didn’t have to in the declaration of value forms, so we have to continuously copy these and that’s for each invoice that is put on an entry. “We have some clients who may have anywhere from ten to 20 invoices in their shipment. That’s paper and ink all day, plus they are asking for extra sets because every department needs a set of copies. So now our clients are calling from department to department trying to find copies. This doesn’t make any sense.”

The eCAS system went down three weeks ago around the same time it was originally set up to be discontinued on July 1. Click2Clear is already in use throughout the rest of The Bahamas, but concerns over how it will impact Freeport’s bonded goods regime led to implementation being put off until September 1.

Despite the current setbacks, Ms Ferguson said she is prepared to switch to Click2Clear and had trained on the system when it was provided to her in 2019. “Maybe if they put the bond situation in properly you wouldn’t have people who are trying to buck the system,” she added.

“Because this bonded situation is what has caused them to not put Click2Clear in sooner. It’s just because they didn’t know how to deal with the bonds. In my opinion it is a very simple procedure. When you have duty concessions, like what we have for the Out Islands, it is a simple heading and everything is done. Then, whatever the charges are, they are the only charges that show up on your entry.

“Whereas the duty part of it, they are now setting up virtual warehouses and the vendor who is selling the bonded item has to do an entry every time he sells a bonded item to a bonding company. Then the company has to do an entry every time they accept it. The cost for these individuals right now are going to go up.”

Brent Collins, chief executive of Freeport-based Power Equipment Ltd, said while he is still frustrated that he has to operate manually with the Customs department, he understands the changeover to Click2Clear will be “easier to work with” than the eCas system.

Mr Collins explained: “I can only assume in the short-term there’s going to be a lot of hiccups. But I know they already spent 11 weeks training a lot of the brokers here who clear the shipments.

“Several of the brokers that we use have already been through training with Customs, but the opinion varies. Some people are worried, some people are not and some people see it as good, but from my standpoint being in the field it can only be good.”