Political will is the key to success in combating corruption in Customs, TCP beneficiaries

The anticorruption measures implemented under the Threshold Country Program (TCP) produced a number of improvements in the customs system, but political will is needed to successfully combat corruption is the Customs, beneficiaries of the program consider. "The customs system can be reformed, even if slower, if the senior authorities want to have a prosperous, not corrupt country,” Tatiana Busuncian, executive director of the ProMarshall Center Moldova, the nongovernmental organization that monitored the implementation of the TCP in the Customs and police, has told Info-Prim Neo. The international carriers welcome the ‘one-stop office’ method implemented as part of the TCP as it reduced bureaucracy and the length of customs procedures. The consultative councils composed of representatives of businesses and the Customs Service are also welcome. According to Dumitru Albulesa, adviser to the president of the International Road Carriers Association, the consultative councils enable to quickly solve the problems faced by the carriers when crossing the border. If the carriers are found guilty, they are fined. If they are stopped arbitrarily, the customs officers draw up reports and allow them to go. “Now we do not have objections to the activity of the Customs. The requests we make to the customs authorities through the consultative council are examined,” Albulesa said. The measures carried out under the TCP had a positive effect on the international carriers, but not on the importers. Usually, they have to pay money, otherwise they can stay for days in the Customs or pay fines for often invented irregularities. “The customs officers take whatever they can out of the importers,” one of the questioned businessmen said. The people and the businessmen consider that two factors create favorable conditions for thriving corruption in the Customs: influence peddling and the customs officers’ refusal to provide relevant information. The customs officers allow the ‘favored’ economic entities to cross the border without making them go through customs procedures as they are afraid of remaining without the job. According to the businessmen, the constant informing about the customs procedures could help reduce corruption in the Customs. There should be distributed brochures and leaflets and set up regional information offices,” considers Valentina Postolachi, the head of the economy, social problems and finance division of the National Employers Confederation. The executive director of the ProMarshall Center shares this opinion. "Over 50% of the cases of corruption would not take place if the beneficiaries were better informed,” Tatiana Busuncian said. Ion Magu, the spokesman for the Customs Service, said that the Customs Office assumed the responsibility of fulfilling all the measures aimed at reducing corruption and placing a new emphasis on the professional ethics. There was created a fund of 20 million lei for remunerating the employees of the Customs Service that will identify cases of protectionism and corruption in the customs system. After the TCP measures were implemented, a number of customs officers were dismissed. No customs officer was fired in 2006, as against 10 in 2007. As regards the informing of the private individuals and legal entities, Ion Magu said that the Customs Service will devise a strategy for correctly and timely informing the people about the customs activity According to Transparency International, last year the Customs was the second most corrupt institution in Moldova. Moldova’s Threshold Country Program commits the Government to undertake specific and needed reforms to control corruption with the help of the Millennium Challenge Corporation and provides material and technical assistance in five distinct areas: Judicial Reform, Civil Society and Media, Reform in the Health Services System, Reform in Tax, Customs, and Police Administration, Reform in the Center for Combating Economic Crime and Corruption. Moldova’s TCP is a $24.7 million initiative implemented during 2007-2008.