Custom office attacked for port corruption
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)