Are Customs Administrations Serious About Stamping Out Corruption?
YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX1Ehi879-A
In the Video Professor David Widdowson explores this question and examines the effectiveness of the World Customs Organization’s Revised Integrity Development Guide.
1) Do you agree or disagree with Professor Widdowson’s assessment of the Revised Integrity Development Guide? Explain why or why not.
2) Professor Widdowson suggests that the WCO ‘really missed the point on a number of the areas that they touched on”. What suggestions would you have for the WCO to improve the Guide?
Customs Administration
The World’s custom organization is a European organization representing 179 of the customs administrations of the world at the moment. It recognizes the importance of the fight against corruption to ensure integrity in the trade. It also understands that to ensure efficient and effective customs administrations, good governance measures must be taken. The WCO has identified integrity as its top-most priority. Therefore, it has been helping its members effectively to combat corruption. In 2012, the organization published a Revised Integrity Development guide that provided the member customs administrations with a framework to meet the integrity development needs.
In the revised integrity development guide, it is mentioned that insurance of integrity in customs mainly lies with the head. I agree that to implement any corruption-free strategies, the support of the political head is necessary, but the environment also plays a role here. As far as transparency is concerned, the integrity guide supports the fact that all the dealings and decisions of the customs must be made public. It will prove to be very beneficial if properly enforced. The guide related to automation is also valid as making all the processes that may be made automated can increase the level of accountability. Hence, it ensures integrity. I agree with Professor Widdowson’s analysis of the revised integrity development guide as the code of conduct, human resource management, morale and reform, and modernization; all of them can play a key role in eliminating corruption from customs if properly enforced.
The guide should have included the steps a country’s framework should include eliminating corruption and how exactly to address corrupt practices in the section of regulatory framework. Also, it should be given vital importance that the automation of the processes does not harm the security of privileged information.
