Custom office attacked for port corruption

JAKARTA (JP): Customs officials are again causing unnecessary delays and costs at Indonesia's main ports, claim surveying companies and importers.

"The delay in port clearing time in March reached a 'crazy' level," Amirudin Saud, the chairman of the Indonesian Importers' Association (GINSI), told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

"Earlier this morning I personally encountered a case of customs officials collecting illegal fees," he said.

Amirudin stated that officials at the Directorate General of Customs and Excise, who inspect imports at the port, often abuse their authority.

"The delays cost us huge storage fees," he said, without citing a specific figure. "Worse still, some of the imported goods are needed for production."

According to a recent survey of joint-ventures and domestic companies conducted by the independent consultant Indonesian Business Advisory (BAI), customs clearance is among the four most costly infrastructure constraints. The other three are fuel, telecommunications and land transactions.

A spokesperson from BAI told the Post yesterday that about 50 percent of respondents found that those infrastructural problems have remained virtually unimproved in the last five years.

The government in May 1985 appointed the Swiss Societe Generalle de Surveillance (SGS) to inspect Indonesian imports worth more than US$5,000 at points of loading, practically putting the notorious Directorate General of Customs and Excise out of work.

In August 1991, however, the government decided to restore final inspection authority to the directorate general.

The government has also instructed PT Surveyor Indonesia (SI), a surveyor company jointly owned by the government, SGS and state-owned surveyor PT Sucofindo, to gradually take over inspection jobs from SGS.

"Almost as soon as the government returns part of customs' authority, the old problems...occur again," Michael Lysewyez, one of SGS's Jakarta directors said in a seminar on Monday.

Seizure

Meanwhile, an informed source from SI, who requested anonymity, told the Post yesterday that customs officials often improperly seize items checked at the point of loading.

"For example, officials often claim that they got an investigative tip which means goods already checked by SI must be re-inspected," the source said.

According to Presidential Instruction No. 3/1991, the Directorate General of Customs and Excise can re-inspect imported goods already scrutinized by SI for very specific reasons, including damage to the packaging of the imported goods or special requests from importers.

The presidential instruction, also allows officials to re- check imported goods on the basis of "information from the directorate general's investigative division".

GINSI chairman Amirudin also said yesterday that officials from the customs and excise directorate general often "make up reasons" to seize imported goods.

Credit

The chairman, however, credited leaders of the directorate general as having "sincerely tried to improve things."

"But the people at the inspection sites are often corrupt," he said.

Director General of Customs and Excise Suhardjo told the Post by phone yesterday that all accusations of wrongdoing by his staff must be reported to him "as detailed and specifically as possible."

"If they are just vague complaints aired in the press, I'll say that those charges are just frame-ups inflicted on my office," he said.

Suhardjo said that he will react firmly to all "legitimate reports." He also stated that there are 20 allegedly corrupt customs officials currently under investigation.

"The public should know that GINSI, SGS, and SI have potential interest in implicating us," he said. "They are out to make profits."

"If they are sincere they should talk to me directly," he added.

Suhardjo also said that he found GINSI's and SI's criticisms "sanctimonious." (04)