BOC chief visits Davao on farewell tour

WITH a new administration and an expected total overhaul of the entire system, Bureau of Customs commissioner Napoleon Morales started saying goodbye to the staff of various district offices in the country, starting with the Port of Davao.

Morales was guest of honor during the inauguration of the Capacity Building Center of the Bureau of Customs in Davao City Wednesday.

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Proud of his accomplishments as Customs commissioner, Morales highlighted on his programs to curb corruption in the bureau -- one of the government agencies perceived to be most corrupt alongside with the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

"I hope that the new commissioner who will take my place will continue the anti-corruption programs that we have started," Morales said during a press conference after the inauguration.

Among the programs instituted by Morales includes the e-Customs Project, a multi-million grant from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's e-Government fund.

Under the e-Customs project, the bureau eliminated, or at least lessened the face-to-face transactions of the importers, brokers, and with the bureau.

The Project aims primarily to enhance and upgrade BOC's core and support ICT systems nationwide. Through Internet-based and wireless technologies, it will streamline imports and exports processing and improve trade facilitation between BOC and its stakeholders.

"Everywhere we go, there is really corruption. But what we did here is we removed human intervention by upgrading our ICT systems. That was the answer to the problem on corruption," Morales said.

The program automated the transactions at the bureau and resulted to online submission of manifests, import and export declarations, automatic update on entry status, use of Value Added Service Providers, and e-payment through authorized banks.

With the full implementation of the project, Morales expects improved quality of customs service, improved revenue collection, greater customer satisfaction, highly professional workforce, and greater efficiency.

The system, according to Morales, has already been instituted and whoever sits as the next commissioner will have to continue and support the system to full implementation.

Even with the presence of technology, Morales sees the need to enhance it further as the bureau found out some loopholes in the system.

Morales said forwarders can no longer deal with BoC unless they get their accreditation and should be on the list of the Philippine Shippers' Bureau, an agency under the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).