Monday, June 02, 2008 Arroyo urges Customs to reorganize offices
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered a reorganization of key offices of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to make the agency "more responsive" to the intensified anti- smuggling drive and eventually ensure the "success in the anti-smuggling effort of the government."
Arroyo in issuing Executive Order (EO) 724 on May 16 transferred the Investigation and Prosecution Division (IPD) and the Internal Inquiry and Prosecution Division (IIPD) of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) to the Prosecution and Litigation Division, Legal Service (PLD-LS).
Also to be transferred to the PLD-LS are offices and units and under the Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Enforcement Group, and the Director of Enforcement and Security Services (ESS).
The director of the Legal Service division had been tasked to oversee and ensure the smooth transfer of the concerned units, including the case folders, files and/or records of the offices concerned which shall also be inventoried, docketed and catalogued before these are turned over.
The President said the present setup of the BOC where the prosecution function is being exercised by different offices, units or divisions "diminishes the effectivity of the anti-smuggling drive or campaign of the government" which prompted her to transfer, consolidate and reorganize the prosecution functions of various divisions of the PLD-LS.
Also affected by the changes in the BOC is the Office of the Commissioner which was tapped to oversee the functions of reviewing, evaluating and processing of claims for rewards for informants that provide useful data that leads to successful anti-smuggling operations and at the same time to constitute a Rewards Committee.
The functions of the said committee include: maintaining an Informant's Logbook, receiving information; processing claims for rewards; studying and processing measures to automate claims for rewards, and organizing a secretariat which shall carry out the daily business of the committee on rewards.
A P2-million fund sourced from the BOC had been tapped for the "one-time expense" for the inventory and cataloguing of the case folders to be transferred to the Legal Service, plus P5 million as initial funds for the establishment of the committee on rewards. (JMR/Sunnex)
