Philippine Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña will issue a memorandum directing all district collectors and other officials of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to take responsibility for hitting their port’s collection targets as it will form the basis of whether they stay in their posts.
Lapeña, in a speech during the bureau’s flag-raising ceremony on January 22, said the memorandum will also cover deputy collectors for assessment, chiefs of Formal Entry Division, and examiners, telling them “to be responsible for the achievement of the targets assigned to them.”
“And we will be evaluating you very, very well and that will determine whether you will continue as collector or not,” Lapeña pointed out.
The BOC chief said that the P598.1-billion collection target for 2018 assigned by the Department of Budget and Management-Development Budget Coordination Committee has been distributed among BOC’s collection districts.
He explained that the basis for each district’s collection target is a two-year historical data on the goods, commodities, and volumes handled by each port.
He said this time, the distribution of collection targets is “relatively accurate, or if not, an accurate basis [of] computation.”
The BOC chief said this, therefore, makes the collection targets realistic and doable, as long as correct valuation of goods is imposed.
“The only way that you will not hit your target is when you do undervaluation [of goods] which is still happening now,” Lapeña said.
He said this was why 15 of BOC’s 17 collection districts did not hit their daily targets for the first 18 days of January. Only Davao and Aparri were able to do so, he noted. He explained that usually the first month of the year historically has low volume of shipments but that has already been considered when the targets were assigned.
He clarified, however, that he is not attributing the negative performance to the newly appointed district collectors, who took office only last week.
Lapeña during his speech also gave a stern warning to BOC officials, specifically those at the Manila International Container Port, who continue to undervalue and benchmark.
“I told you at the start of the year that I know you already and I will not allow that this will continue to happen at ito ay magiging magre-resulta sa negative na (as this will result in negative) revenue collection natin,” he said.
He said the distribution of collections was tackled during a collectors’ conference last week, which was also attended by the newly appointed district collectors, and that everyone had agreed to the targets.
He noted that once BOC hits its targets regularly, something he is optimistic about, there will be incentives for everyone in the bureau. Lapeña said he hopes this will eventually allow the bureau to request exemption from salary standardization so that salaries of customs officials and personnel can be increased and this will make them “think twice” before doing acts that may cause their dismissal from service.
Image courtesy of IndypendenZ at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
