By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
Bids for the development of an electronic single window (ESW) for the Customs Department are expected to go out sometime in October of this year according to Comptroller Charles Turner.
Responding to Tribune Business inquiries, Mr Turner said that the Customs modernisation process was “going well”.
“We have the enforcement unit, we have the business process re-engineering for the enforcement unit. We have purchased five vessels, two for Freeport and two for Nassau. There is a kennel unit that is being formed. By September we should have the dogs. There are plans afoot to purchase scanners, body scanners and cargo scanners. There is also radio equipment that we would have purchased for the Family Islands and Nassau,” said Mr Turner.
Commenting on the ESW, Mr Turner said: “There is also the business process re-engineering going on now for the ESW, electronic single window. Hopefully that would go out to bid sometime in October of this year.
“This would allow Customs to interact with the other government agencies electronically.”
International consultants from Spain, ACE International Consultancy, had been contracted after an RFP process to carry out a process re-engineering of Customs and other regulatory agencies involved in the importation and exportation of goods.
The Ministry of Finance has received financing in the amount of $ 16.5 million USD from the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) to implement a Trade Sector Support Programme.
The overall objectives of this programme are to improve the operational efficiency of the Customs and Excise Department and to prepare the government for accession to the World Trade Organisation.
An Inter-American Development Bank report for a five-year, $16.5 million Trade Sector Support Programme, claimed that the Government was losing $66 million in revenues annually due to inefficiencies at Bahamas Customs alone.
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