Customs boss gives agency high score
Published:Thursday | May 26, 2022 | 12:05 AMJudana Murphy/Gleaner Writer
Commissioner of the Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA), Velma Ricketts Walker, has given the agency she heads a near-perfect score of 9.8 out of 10 as Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) reviews a damning report of the organisation’s bunkering operations and private bonded warehouses.
The Auditor General’s Department (AGD) carried out the audit covering the period 2016 to 2021 based on allegations made by a whistle-blower under the Protected Disclosures Act.
The whistle-blower claimed that Bunker Fuel Operator (BFO1) has been using its status as a Special Economic Zone operator to import items without the payment of the required import duties and general consumption tax.
The special report outlined that there was no evidence of independent verification by a surveyor of the type and volume of fuel being transacted by BFO1. The audit also found that surveyor certificates were not uploaded in the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) system to enable immediate verification of the quantity of fuel which was exported.
The AGD reviewed a sample of entries and observed that this was done in respect of Petrojam’s imports and exports of fuel.
“We did have some non-compliance with BFO1 in uploading. Those compliance issues were resolved in terms of now uploading, as requested. I have to also speak to communication issues on our part as well to ensure that the document, though not mandated, customs has asked for it that you dutifully and faithfully ensure that those information are provided,” the commissioner said, adding that JCA was also working with the entity to ensure that the outstanding documentation is uploaded to ASYCUDA.
Ricketts Walker contended that the JCA has no legal obligations to request a surveyors’ report but the agency is reviewing the need or the lack thereof for the document going forward.
Deputy Auditor General Gail Lue Lim reasoned that in the absence of a surveyors’ report, the AGD is unable to verify that what is said to have been exported was indeed exported.
“The surveyor’s report is not commissioned by customs. It is a relationship between the buyer and the seller. It is the buyer and the seller who needs it to ascertain their own relationship, not customs. We recognise that there can be value in looking at this document ... . It’s not a mandated document, it is a secondary document that helps our process but your audit is centred around the surveyor’s report which can create a misleading representation,” Ricketts Walker said.
She added that when there are additional requirements for trade, there are implications for the cost and ease of doing business.
Further, Ricketts Walker said customs is present when fuel is being offloaded to oversee the process, seal the tank, take a measure of the amount in the tank and keep a record of the information.
She said customs is also present on the visit of an independent surveyor to verify and conduct its own dip and measure of the fuel as “the officers are so trained”.
Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis said it was AGD’s understanding, based on what was observed, that the surveyors’ report was a part of the process.
“I am hearing Jamaica Customs saying something else today but I believe the commissioner has also admitted that it is a useful document that will be incorporated ... I hear what is being said about the incorrectness of the information and I stand by what is presented here. The Jamaica Customs were provided with several opportunities to provide the evidence and the evidence is not word of mouth. The evidence is in writing and what we are able to observe and I was not able to validate the process as she has outlined it because the evidence available does not support what she is saying,” the auditor general reasoned.
The audit found violations of laws that have resulted in more than $2 billion in financial exposure and more than $500 million in uncollected revenue.
The commissioner told Tuesday’s PAC meeting that the JCA has provided a reconciliation to the auditor general and the books were reconciled to 98 per cent.
Ricketts Walker said revenues were also accounted for and a live audit is being conducted internally to account for the remaining two per cent.
Meanwhile, member of parliament for Westmoreland Western, Morland Wilson, said with Jamaica’s ambitions of developing a logistics hub, the happenings is “a major shot in the foot”.
“We could not develop a systemic-wide logistics port with such glaring deficiencies,” he lamented.