The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Cargo inspections by the Customs Department are being done on a “risk analysis” basis, its Comptroller confirmed yesterday, agreeing that inspecting nearly 100 per cent of imports - as suggested in a consultants’ report - is “not practical”.

While declining to comment extensively on the Oxford Economics research, Charles Turner told Tribune Business he took issue with the  suggestion that the Bahamas still employs outdated practices by inspecting nearly 100 per cent of all cargo landed in this nation.

“We have a post-clearance audit team in place,” he explained. “Customs all over the world have shifted to risk analysis. We rely on our analysis and allow goods to be cleared immediately on arrival, and checks are done post-clearance.

“It’s impossible, not practical to do 100 per cent examinations on every shipment. It’s done on a risk analysis basis. What we continue to do is identify our high-risk goods.

“Sometimes members of the public see a container with goods being removed, and because there is no Customs officer there they become concerned. That often happens, but the public is unaware that containers released on a risk analysis basis will not be examined,” Mr Turner added.

“We don’t have enough officers to go to every site. It’s not practical and makes no sense. We do know, in many instances, the high-risk and low-risk containers. Major food stores, we know, are low-risk because we deal with them all the time and we find very few or no infractions.

“There are times, however, when a low-risk may become high risk. There may be a time when an importer will have to be checked to see whether there stays remain low-risk or high-risk. We are concentrating on post-importation checks as opposed to checking documents at the border.”

Mr Turner added that without any ‘abnormalities’, a person can have their goods checked and cleared within an hour to two hours.

The Government has already moved to enhance efficiencies in Customs’ operations, introducing the revised Customs Management Act in 2011, and following this up with the Electronic Single Window (ESW) initiative.

The Bahamas-based Organisation for Responsible Governance (ORG), while giving the Government credit for the initiative, warned against allowing Customs staff to execute the ESW project without oversight, as this “creates opportunity for non-compliance and corruption”.

Mr Turner said the ESW initiative was “going well”, and added: “On Monday we brought in all of the superintendents from the Family Islands and Nassau to update them on it. It will allow for us to communicate  electronically with other stakeholders and sub-agents.”