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In an interview on the sidelines of the just-ended Shipping and Forwarding Agents’ Association of Zimbabwe (SFAAZ) annual conference in Beitbridge on Friday, the Zimra Commissioner of Customs and Excise, Mr Happias Kuzvinzwa, said the proposed Customs and Business Forum would create a platform for Zimra and the business fraternity to collaborate on various technical issues.
“In line with international best practices, Zimra is working in partnership with organised business associations so that we come up with an MoU for the Zimbabwe Customs and Business Forum. This forum will create a platform for Zimra and the local businesses to interact and discuss issues of compliance, policy, capacity building, integrity and technical engagements,” he said.
Mr Kuzvinzwa said an interim steering committee is finalising the draft document and terms of reference.
The forum is expected to be launched soon.
The membership of the forum is the businesses affiliated to recognised associations.
“The forum will be governed through a steering committee, which is a higher committee and standing committees, which are lower committees co-chaired and constituted by both Zimra and business. The standing committees are organised in clusters for easy management of programmes,” said Mr Kuzvinzwa.
He urged the freight industry to embrace technology and human capacity development to remain competitive on the global market.
“In order to be competitive on the global market, the freight industry is our strategic partner in the management of the flow of international trade as each one of us plays a critical role in the supply chain. I therefore challenge them to keep abreast with technology such as other Asycuda World modules, which enable the electronic lodgement of bills of entry and electronic advance cargo manifest,” he said.
Mr Kuzvinzwa also lashed out at corrupt Zimra officers working in cahoots with touts by demanding money from clients so that they speed up the processing of customs documents.
“‘As Zimra we are aware that some of our officers are working with touts and operating at border posts to extort money from our clients. There is a culture of what has become known as push-money where touts and clearing agents entice our officers to cherry pick the bills of entry for expedited processing in return for a fee.
“We are saying such a culture must come to an end and as Zimra we don’t condone such corrupt tendencies,” he said.
Mr Kuzvinzwa said in an effort to curb corruption among Zimra officers and clearing agents, his organisation intended to establish National Examination Centres in Masvingo, Bulawayo and Harare where bills of entry would be processed.
“All the bills of entry will be processed at these centres to avoid face to face contact, cherry picking and the push-money game by our officers and clearing agents,” he said. The centres would be operated for 24 hours.
Mr Kuzvinzwa warned clearing companies against engaging touts and urged travellers and importers to deal with registered clearing agents, customs officials and designated border agencies in the event
that they required assistance.
Several unsuspecting travellers have fallen prey to touts and conmen masquerading as clearing agents and border officials.
They approach travellers under the guise of offering assistance to speed up the clearance formalities and in the process and swindle them of their money.
He, however, said in an effort to stamp out corruption and improve on efficiency, Zimra was in the process of putting in place a border agency single window through AsycudaWorld.
Under the new systems, all border agencies would be connected to the workflow process through
AscudaWorld to ensure that respective mandates are well-coordinated and streamlined.
“Discussions are at an advanced stage with other border agencies on the implementation of the single window. Beitbridge has been selected to pilot the single window concept and Zimra will provide computer workstations,” said Mr Kuzvinzwa.
He said in an effort to address the problem of connectivity at Beitbridge Border Post, Zimra has acquired latest technology servers to improve system storage capacity and processing speed.
“We have acquired latest technology servers to increase system processing speed at our border posts. The current old servers will also be used as backup and mirror processes at critical border posts such as Beitbridge and Harare Airfreight,” he said.
Customs clearing agents have on numerous occasions blamed Zimra’s poor connectivity resulting in delays in the clearance of goods at Beitbridge Border Post.
Zimra attributed the challenge to small bandwidth in areas without fibre optic, erratic power supplies due to intermittent load shedding and the use of lower version connection gadgets by clearing agents.
Online Reporter