Hai Phong Customs Department: streamline system tying with effective use of the resources

Professional activities at the Fixed Container Scanning Center (the Hai Phong Customs Department). Photo: T.Bình.

Set an example on the merge of supervision team

Over years, along with the socio-economic development of the country and localities under management, the volume of the Hai Phong Customs Department’s work has increased sharply each year. Notably, the number of enterprises, declarations, turnovers, import and export goods making procedures in the unit increases 10-15% per year. By 2017, total enterprises making procedures in the Hai Phong Customs Department is up to 21,000 with around 1.3 billion customs declarations.

According to Customs News reporters, if by the end of 2013, the actual revenue of the Hai Phong Customs Department was only 36,833 billion VND, the number reached 50,019 billion VND by 2017, contributing 17.84% into the total State revenue of the whole sector, an increase of nearly 13,200 billion VND over the past 5 years. The increase of 13,200 billion VND is equal to revenue target in the whole year of many large units in the sectors.

However, according to the Hai Phong Customs Department, despite a high increase of work, the unit is being cut down by 17 staff. In 2013, the number staff of the Department was 885 people, but the figure was only 868 in 2017.

In this situation, the Hai Phong Customs Department has proactively implemented many solutions to take full advantage of available resources, striving to arrange, streamlining the system, without raising a new system.

Notably in 2015, the Hai Phong Customs Department proposed a plan to merge the supervision team of ships, warehouses with the supervision team of port gate under the unit into the Customs Supervision Team, and was approved by the General Department of Customs. Then, the General Department of Customs has applied the model to other local customs departments.

Over the last two years (2016 and 2017), the Hai Phong Customs Department also focused on the improvement of its staff ability. At the same time, raising awareness of its civil servants to comply with discipline, improving the professional skills in duty.

Besides, in order to maintain discipline, the Party Committee of the Hai Phong Customs Department issued Resolution No 420-NQ/DUHQ on the implementation of discipline for staff, party memberships, civil servants. At the same time, establishing a public services supervision, inspection team to ensure the staffs’ observation of discipline through actual work area and surveillance camera system.

The model team of “3 in 1”

In 2018, in the plan for socio-economic development of Hai Phong city, the city has new important ports which have come into operation. Beside the Nam Dinh Vu port mentioned above, recently, Hai Phong International Container Terminal Co. Ltd., (HICT), investor of deep-water port in Lach Huyen, has informed that since May 2018, the company will take the first wharf of the largest international gateway port in the North into operation.

It is expected that in the period 1 (May-December 2018), the capacity of the port will receive and make clearance for 160,000 TEUs with the number of receiving vessels expected to be 6 arrivals per week. The representative of the company said that in period 2 (January-December 2019), the capacity in the deep-water Lach Huyen port will be increased to 1.1 million TEUs.

In order to meet the demands of making procedures for enterprises and management task, the Hai Phong Customs Department reported and proposed to the General Department of Customs to approve the pilot implementation of the Customs inspection, supervision and control team to perform simultaneously the three functions of physical inspection of goods; customs inspection; cooperation in controlling the smuggling at seaport border gates. This model is proposed to apply to Lach Huyen port – an international gateway port, 26 km away from the headquarter of Hai Phong Customs Department.

The representative of Hai Phong Customs Department also analyzed: the implementation of the model above will take full advantage of resources, limit the move to the port area of civil servants who work in different teams in the same department.