Following the proposal of the Ministry of
Finance, the Government adopted a decision on June 8 to create an Inter-Agency
Target Center and 20 mobile groups to fight corruption at the
customs. Also, mandatory photo and video coverage of customs procedures was
adopted.
The Ministry of Finance and the Government have
been pursuing systemic reforms at the customs aimed to overcome corruption, to
fight smuggling and customs rules violations, to automate the customs services,
to simplify customs procedures etc.
In line with these objectives, the Ministry of
Finance has already implemented a procedure for the automated distribution of
customs declarations, prepared a draft law on authorized economic operators and
the concept of the automated system of customs procedures “Single Window”. All
these procedures and regulations were unanimously approved by the Government.
Next steps in this area are the creation of the Inter-Agency Target Center and
joint mobile groups at the Ministry of Finance as well as the implementation of
photo and video coverage of customs procedures.
The Inter-Agency Target Center will be
permanently coordinating the activities of 20 joint mobile groups which are in
charge for the prevention and detection of customs rules violations.
Participants of the Centerinclude representatives of the State Fiscal
Service, State Border Protection Service and the National Police.
The analytical group of the Center will be
pursuing analytical and investigating activities to detect risky transactions
at the customs and will be passing relevant information to the mobile groups
which shall act in the 24/7 mode to react rapidly on illegal actions.
Also, mandatory photo and video coverage of
customs procedures and other public control procedures will be incrementally
implemented. Photo and video coverage will be permanent (i.e., it will be
covering procedures at all stages), informative (all procedures will be
commented by employees in charge) and available for insight and control. At the
final stage it is planned to attach the video material to the respective
customs declarations using the tools of the automated customs clearance system
of the State Fiscal Service.
Thus, the new regulations are aimed to prevent
corruption (attempted by the customs authorities as well as by business),
increase the transparency and efficiency of the customs control and other kinds
of public control as well as to remove negative trends currently observed at
the customs.
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