September 1 will mark three months since I have been at the Customs Department. We have had two demonstrations so far, or maybe I should say I have had two demonstrations. There's never a dull moment at Customs. Someone once said, be careful what you pray for because you might just get it. Well, I got what I prayed for - a challenging job.

Because of the nature of our economy, our natural resource mix and probably our proximity to the United States, we import a great deal of all we consume and the inputs of the precious little we manufacture. This means that the Customs Department is a very important cog in our national wheel and, therefore, can cause great frustration or great support for the hopes and aspirations of those who depend on imports.

Trade facilitation

Facilitation of trade, believe it or not, is not just a buzzword of Jamaica Customs but a major policy position of the World Customs Organisation (of which Jamaica is a member). For many importers I have spoken to, trade facilitation appears to mean one thing: "Accept the invoice with the price I am giving you and shut up, you silly bureaucrat."

They do not consider underinvoicing by up to 70 per cent of the true value, a corrupt practice, that's 'smart' business. They also don't see not declaring all the goods on the pallet, or describing them fictitiously, as corruption. Further, they see selling counterfeit goods as smart, because who can tell the difference anyway? And, if the buyer doesn't know, why is there a problem? "Pesky custom officers, get a real job, cho, if it wasn't one t'ing yuh see."

The abuse that customs officers suffer is really shameful. At the Norman Manley International Airport, I received a report last week that a customs officer was so shaken up when an Informal Commercial Importer (ICI) took off her shoe and said: "If you charge me duty on everything, I'm going to bus' your head with this (expletives deleted) shoe." Those words to an employee of the Government just doing her job. In the United States, if you harm a public servant doing his or her job, the penalties are higher than if you harm another citizen. We should protect all our public servants similarly. I can assure that the ICI did not see her behaviour as corrupt.

I am amazed, daily, at the volume of persons purchasing motor vehicles, claiming to have bought them at an auction at a bargain and when, from our investigations, we get the price that the auction house bought it for (because auctioneers' don't make cars), we find that the original purchasing price was higher than the importer's declared price. We are expected to believe that it was sold to the importer at a loss.

Wicked

When we question the uneconomic nature of such a transaction, we are told that a previous buyer could not complete the purchase and, therefore, they only had to pay the difference. I guess used-car dealers have found religion. When we refuse to accept this 'version', we are seen as wicked (I paraphrase), and we are told that if it was for our friend, we would "do a t'ing". These persons don't see themselves as corrupt. They are just "trying a thing" and, if caught, then I guess we all live to try again in the future.

The person who bribes or seeks to bribe a customs officer. to allow any of the above does not see himself as corrupt. He sees it as paying for a service. It always amazes me how quick those persons are to describe those customs officers as corrupt and how they have personal knowledge of these things, with an air of being street-savvy. But they don't see themselves as corrupt. Even more unfortunately, the customs officer, who has taken money to allow an importer to jump the line or evade duties payable, does not see himself as corrupt either. It's just the "runnings", influenced by insufficient salaries. Really? All are equally unacceptable.

We must begin to put down these corrupt practices. You are all too comfortable branding the police and politicians as such. When the roads are not fixed, projects not completed on time or if the schools start to complain about funding, quickly from some self-constructed pedestal of moral authority, so many described above point out corrupt politics but never include themselves.

When caught, the explanations always include claims of innocence, ignorance or an inability to pay the penalty. One of my nephews, a young man whose dad and I served in the army together and who remains a close personal friend, brought in a damaged car prior to my appointment. When I presented the proof to him that he paid more for the car, he apologised and asked if he could just pay the correct duty, but avoid the penalty. After he explained how the apparent authenticity of the fraudulent invoice is achieved, I told him to view the $500,000 penalty atop the recalculated duties as tuition and that he was learning a valuable business lesson early.

I am of the unshakeable view that when caught deliberately evading customs duties, persons should pay the penalty of three times the value of the goods. There are even some cases where these goods should also be forfeited. Mitigation and leniency only lead to the perception of corruption in Jamaica. My managers tell me they have been taught to suggest a penalty that encourages payment; all that does is encourage more corruption or the perception of corruption.

A customs agent and parcels unit team examining contents of incoming parcels to determine the extent of customs duty (if any) that the addressee may be required to pay. Parcels are checked by a team rather than an individual to ensure transparency. - Contributed

We will be taking a tougher stance on those persons who insist on pursuing corrupt practices in importation. Customs brokers need to publicise the new approach of the Customs Department to their importers so they are not seen as facilitating these corrupt practices. We have noticed a high correlation between some customs brokers and these practices and some of you are prostituting your licensees to broker agents and then claiming that your signature was forged and expecting the department to swallow these vapid excuses in your pleas for leniency.

Ordinarily I do not announce these things, I usually wait for a volunteer to come forward so that an example can be made of them, but I have decided to give fair warning. We have already started to apply the penalties but come September 1, we will go even further. Yes, we have some cleaning up to do in our own house and we intend to do that. Corruption robs us all - you of your dignity, the State of its revenue, and all of us of our reputations. All of us at the Customs Department have our jobs to do. It's a tough job but we're going to do it.