Following a request for capacity building in the area of effective revenue assurance, the first Sub Regional Virtual Workshop on Post-Clearance Audit (PCA) for the Pacific Islands was organized by the WCO and the Asia Pacific Regional Office for Capacity Building from 23 to 26 November 2020, with the financial support of the Indian Customs Co-operation Fund (CCF/India).
This Workshop was designed to support the sub-region in the better understanding and effective implementation of PCA in line with the WCO PCA Guidelines through discussions. 12 middle-level Customs managers representing Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Timor-Leste, Tonga and Vanuatu virtually attended this event. The organizational structure, number of staff and types of audits vary among the Administrations in the region, but the participants took advantage of having similar challenges and finding good practices by actively exchanging opinions and techniques during the workshop.
The participants actively contributed to the Workshop and several issues were raised and discussed with a special interest on the question on how best to implement PCA under the covid-19 pandemic situation. Participants exchanged information and views about their measures in place in their administration in order to come up with possible options.
At a closing of the workshop, a remark was provided by Mr. Bhushan Brij Gupta, Additional Director General of India Customs, representing the CCF/India, who stressed the importance of exchanging ideas about how to overcome the challenges. Also, he highlighted that the discussions on how to work during pandemic situation have brought them close together in tackling this enforcing gigantic crisis at a personal level.
One of the participants expressed his will to apply the techniques he learnt to their daily tasks, also to share information with his colleagues to address issues as they go along.
The Workshop concluded successfully with positive feedback from the participants. The development of PCA, the risk-based compliance approach in partnership with the business community, don’t stop even under the crisis to facilitate legitimate trade.
02 December 2020