Speaking at the World Customs Organisation (WCO) meeting in Gaborone last week, Seretse said customs administrations should introduce effective controls of cargo transported by road, rail, air and waterways to secure supply chain of goods as well as to increase their fight against organised crime by tackling the lucrative white-collar crime. "This is a challenge for customs administrations to contend with, primarily because the incentives for perpetrators to commit revenue-related fraud are great," he said. Seretse said that customs administrators cannot respond to the need to be at the forefront of providing security to their countries using the same administrative structures and business plans which were built in the main for fiscal purposes and now need restructuring to respond to the challenge. "On the operational front, customs administrations in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) region and elsewhere have the challenge of balancing security with trade facilitation to meet the needs of all stakeholders," he said.
However, the challenge facing customs administrations in the region in this regard is how to ensure the unimpeded flow of trade while maintaining effective control. This is different from the past where control was basically physical, which took a lot of time, effort and cost. Seretse emphasised that nowadays, modern working methods should be applied to simplify and focus controls where they are needed. " In particular, computerisation, post-import and audit controls and the use of risk analysis are techniques that are most useful in that respect," he noted.
