The Bureau of Customs (BOC) recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Civil Service Commission aimed at developing a prequalifying exam for BOC job applicants.
The agency is looking to fill more than 1,000 vacancies in its ranks.
The current number of customs employees in the country is “statistically” not enough to provide adequate service, Customs Commissioner John Sevilla told reporters on the sidelines of the MOU signing.
He said the ratio of customs personnel to the public it serves is 1 in 27,000 in contrast to other countries’ 1:5,000. In Southeast Asia, the ratio is 1:10,000.
Even if all current vacancies are filled, the ratio would still be 1:20,000, said Sevilla. “We’re not saying we need to get to the 1:5,000 ratio… Going forward, the resolution is to add people and increase the productivity of the existing people so we can do more work with less people.”
Faster cargo clearance
Greater productivity would also make possible faster cargo clearance. In this area, the customs chief described the efficiency of the agency as “very poor,” as it takes three to four days to clear shipments. “That’s better than before, but I think we can do better.”
Sevilla said he plans to have 50 % to 75% of the shipments processed in one day, but admitted he was unsure if this was “feasible.”
He said one reason for the delay is the unclear requirements for import permits.
“There are 50 government agencies that issue additional permits for specific types of imports” and “nobody ever bothered to compile a list” of the requirements or how these requirements should be treated, Sevilla said.
The BOC is now compiling all requirements in one list.
“If we want to be efficient, we need to eliminate all discretion, misunderstanding, all unclear (requirements),” Sevilla pointed out.
Meanwhile, he reiterated it is not BOC’s role to fix port congestion, explaining that there is a difference between “clearing your shipments through customs and physically taking your container out.”
Sevilla noted that BOC is already operating seven days a week, but “hardly anybody brings their shipments out on Sundays, (and) hardly anybody wants to transact with customs during weekends.”
Pulling out containers during weekends “is something that importers have to do themselves,” he stressed. – Roumina Pablo
Image courtesy of phasinphoto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
