The Revised Arusha Declaration lists six human resource management practices that are useful for Customs administrations to address corruption. Consider each of these six practices and the related issue closely and explain why you believe these issues are so relevant in the fight against corruption.
Revised Arusha Declaration
On 7th July 1993, Arusha declaration was passed by WCO to make corruption-free customs a priority for all the Governments. It was a one-page document that defined all the rules to be followed by customs administrations to eliminate corruption from their organizations. In 2003, a revision of the Arusha declaration was passed by WCO after reviewing the previous version.
The revised Arusha declaration focuses on some human resource practices that are necessary to control corruption. The main area to be focused on corruption prevention is leadership and commitment. It is because if the leadership of the organization does not meet the ethical behavior requirements, the junior staff is more likely to get corrupted. Supervisors are held responsible for maintaining integrity in the organizations.
Another way is to maintain transparency between the stakeholders and the clients as it establishes trust and ensures a corruption-free relationship. It can be improved by making amendments and legislation, non-privileged procedures, concessions, tariffs available for the industry and the public.
The modernization of the procedures and the systems are also necessary for corruption prevention as having to deal with outdated practices often leads to unethical behaviors such as offering bribes. Also, a code of conduct should be declared for that must be accepted and followed by all customs personnel. Its main objective is to make it clear to all the officials what is considered ethical and what is considered unethical within the organization.
The HR management and the enforcement of its practices must follow a sound structure. Providing employees with a timely salary, hiring high-integrity individuals, ensuring promotions by merit and other such activities can help to eliminate corruption from the organization. Another factor is to increase the morale of the employees. High Morales and ethical culture of the organization discourages corruption among the customs individuals.
