Customs to improve relations with army and the police

The new Customs director general, John Mifsud, 56, speaks about plans and fears in an interview with Michael Testa following his recent appointment.

What is the role of Customs in a globalised world?

In the last eight years, reforms were made that had direct effect on the service provided by Customs. Since globalisation had an effect on those offering a service in the trading sector, Customs had to see how it could simplify and facilitate its procedures.

Huge efforts were made and are being made to simplify procedures, but at the same time, the necessary controls had to continue.

But to simplify work and keep the necessary control one needed to build anew, to base work on risk management that would be backed by a strong intelligence backing.

Have you got the resources?

You have to make the best use of resources. Use your resources in order to obtain the best output.

One of the strategies was cooperation with people in the business sector, especially organisations representing businessmen. To simplify work, one had to put emphasis on compliance.

The Customs web page includes loads of information to guide the individual on Customs procedures and to comply with the law to avoid waste of time and trouble.

But obviously the risk element continued to exist and therefore Customs had its intelligence unit. This analysed imports and classified them according to the risk element. In order to do this the intelligence unit builds profiles of importers.

Is the present set-up adequate enough to cope with the threat of drug importation?

The Enforcement Arm is made up of the Anti-Fraud Squad and the Anti Drugs Squad, two units which cannot be separated because they work in close cooperation.

We have various x-ray machines and we have issued a call for tenders to obtain equipment that will enable us to fight drug trafficking more effectively. Malta will be one of the first few countries possessing such equipment for the airport.

Another important section is the Dog Section which was part of the anti-drug squad.

The department is always modernising itself.

Would EU membership affect the work of Customs?

For us it is immaterial whether Malta joins the EU or not. The modernisation process was taking place around the world and we had to modernise. But pre-accession funds in recent years amounting to around Lm4 million helped us to speed up the process. The funds were to modernise and upgrade Customs procedures, to strengthen investigation and enforcement of border controls, to create a new structure at top management as well as trade procedure facilitation.

Some may have the wrong perception that Customs would have its validity diminished if Malta joined the EU. This was far from the real situation, because being situated in the southernmost external border, Malta would have the role to protect the whole EU market.

In fact with Malta being a member of the EU a Maltese Customs official would be a member of the team protecting the frontier of the EU.

What about personnel training?

We engaged serving Customs officers from EU member states to train our personnel rather than hiring a private company to train our people. Another approach was to send local Customs officials on study visits abroad to gain first hand experience in EU member states.

However, the biggest investment was made in a new system for Customs declaration based on the latest Internet technology. This system is also to be used in Cyprus. The new system, developed in Denmark but tailor-made for Malta, is to be installed in the next few months.

How are you tackling the problem of tax evasion?

A three year Customs Department plan (2002-4) has tax evasion as one of its main objectives. Customs cooperates with the VAT Department and the Tax Compliance Unit and with Customs Departments in other countries by exchanging information on a regular basis.

An important procedure in our work is the audit trail. Customs checking had to be facilitated, but now the tradition that Customs' work was over when the cargo is released was finished. The department had to ensure that imports are released without delay but it had to continue exercising its controls even after cargo is released. Towards this end a post clearance audit team was set up to audit certain imports after cargo is released from Customs.

The strategy was first to build up a profile of importers and try to examine subjects of high risk at the border. Even this delayed procedure so the idea was to release the goods and continue with controls after.

A team of six in the post clearance unit was trained in the UK and will continue their training there later this month. Presently they are attending a course on computer applications.

One of the matters which needed to be seriously tackled is observation techniques. I will be placing documents on this on internet so that if anyone responsible for law and order observed something suspicious the individual may be able to pass on the information secretly to the officers concerned.

One of the arms of our strategy was based on compliance. It was in the interest of those observing the law and who are taking great advantage from measures by Customs to simplify procedures to pass on any information about evasion to the department. This was because there was the probability that those in breach of the law would harm those complying with it.

It is in everyone's interest that facilities are offered to law abiders, but the department expected information.

What are your views about smuggling? Malta is an island and the sea creates the risk of illegal importation of goods by sea.

This risk is very real and the coast remains one of my biggest concerns. But surveillance of Malta's territorial waters is not the responsibility of the Customs but of the Armed Forces. As director general I feel that one of the most important measures to continue to develop with more impetus is cooperation with the Armed Forces and the police. Customs has people who have been trained in this kind of work and it was time that this knowledge is shared with others involved in the fight against contraband.

The problem is geographical in that the sea is constantly providing a risk with summer being the most dangerous time for this type of illegal action.

It is my policy to establish direct cooperation and the combined use of human resources to fight trafficking.

Cooperation already existed but the strategy must change. Customs has to utilise its resources to train AFM personnel in this work. And this is the policy I intend to follow.

Malta was never considered as a risk country, but the responsibility still remained. A big problem to the European Union as far as drugs were concerned was the Balkan route.

Are you happy with Customs work at the airport and elsewhere to stop illegal drug trafficking?

You can never say you are happy. But we are training our personnel in techniques to establish where the biggest risk exists and place our resources there and avoid the mistakes of the past.

Resources had to be deployed intelligently where the risk existed. This is the way a modern Customs department works but unfortunately modern communication technology, apart from helping the law enforcers also helped the criminal. These enable the criminal to change plans quickly.

A disadvantage for the Customs is that pre-information was not forthcoming especially at the airport and the decisions over who was a risk and who was not had to be taken there and then.

A recent success by Customs at the airport was due to the expertise and observation skills of Customs officers. On that occasion Customs officials intercepted two suitcases containing over 200 skins of protected birds which had just arrived from Egypt. This was good for Malta which had obligations under an International Convention on protected endangered species.

Recently Customs had various successes in their work to stop the importation of counterfeit goods...

Yes. A small Customs unit was set up to fight breaches of international property rights. We had cases of illegal importation of counterfeit and pirated goods. The role of the unit was also to lecture agents and importers about property rights. And it appeared that the problem of counterfeit clothes has been defeated through the hard work of Customs. This is one of the success stories of Customs. Another success was the seizure of a large quantity of counterfeit cigarettes which was achieved through Customs monitoring without any outside information.

I would like to invite Customs staff to come forward with ideas and suggestions how our service could be improved.

Profile

John Mifsud joined the Customs Department in 1968 and has worked in virtually all the department's sections. In 1990, he was responsible for the introduction of the complex harmonised system. In 1994, he was responsible for preparing for the introduction of VAT, the changeover to CET three years later and the comeback of VAT after 1998. In 2000, he took over the new directorate within the department, as director for EU matters and was responsible for the preparation of Malta's position paper on the Customs Union in negotiations with the EU. His priorities are tax evasion, high standards and accountability.