Millennium Challenge Corporation donated Customs Office equipment for ensuring legality at customs

Millennium Challenges Corporation has donated the Moldovan Customs Office (CO) special equipment, meant for investigating cases of violating the customs and penal legislation, Info-Prim Neo has learnt from the CO press service. The consulting team of the Corporation of the US Justice Ministry, the Project Direction ICITAP visited the Customs Service on February 3. The American experts gave equipment to two directions of the Service. Up to present, the objectives provided in the area of risk management, post-customs auditing, instructing officers of the Internal Security Direction have been achieved in the framework of the Country Threshold Plan for Moldova (CTP), financed by the Millennium Challenge Corporation. General Director of the CO Viorel Melnic said that the benefit of the Customs Service from the cooperation based on CPT has been materialized through implementing the New Computerized Transit System (NCTS) in the whole country, that will be finished this year. This program, assisted by penal inquest experts of the International Assistance and Instruction Program (PIAIAP) of the US Justice Department, comes to fortify the activities of the informational systems and the data exchange with the organizations involved in external trade and facilitates the management of risks and transit procedures through using the one stop shop. As to the area of analyzing risks, the selection criteria and their submission to a feasibility study have been revised. As to the post-customs auditing, a guide for performing these operations and the Methodological Norms regarding fulfilling the post-customs auditing have been developed, Viorel Melnic added. With the assistance of PIAIAP, lectures for the CO employees have been organized, the ethical and disciplinary standards, as well as the table of exceptions and sanctions have been studied. Viorel Melnic also added that before launching the CTP, from 2005 to 2007, the CO benefited from important technical assistance from the US, and the provided equipment contributed to a great extent to increase the customs' controlling and supervising capacity.