Revealing many violations links to import cashew nuts

Movement of imported cashew nuts of the whole country and the Cambodian market by month in the first 8 months of 2021, unit "ton". Sketched by: T.Bình.

In the first months of the year, the amount of imported raw cashew nuts increased abnormally, especially from Cambodia. This was promptly grasped by the leaders of the General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDVC). The GDVC has directed units to synchronously deploy professional measures to focus on clarifying abnormal signs (as Customs News reported). The Post-Clearance Audit Department is the unit assigned by the leaders of GDVC to play the leading role in fulfilling special inspection project.

Identifying fraudulent acts in importing cashew nuts will greatly impact the production and business activities of credible domestic firms, reputation and brand names of Vietnamese goods as well as causing revenue loss. At the same time, following the direction of the GDVC, tbe Post-Clearance Audit Department has gathered resources and deployed special inspections to clarify doubts and unusual signs of import and export operation of cashew nuts.

According to the Director of the Post-Clearance Audit Department Nguyen Tien Loc, facing the unit determined that the post-clearance audit of cashew nuts was the top task in the third quarter.

After the direction of the leaders of GDVC issued, the Post-Clearance Audit Department issued 20 decisions on inspecting signs of violations in Binh Phuoc province - the "capital" of planting, importing, processing and exporting cashew in Vietnam. In the unit's inspection, some southern provinces and cities, including Binh Phuoc province, began to apply social distancing following Directive 16. This affected the information collection, verification and working with firms when conducting post-clearance audit. However, with responsibility and determination to overcome difficulties, the Post-Clearance Audit Department took advantage of the time to carry out 18 out of 20 on-site inspections in the area that had not applied social distancing yet. The other two cases of on-site inspection could not be carried out because the director of the company was applied social distancing in HCM City and was not present in Binh Phuoc at the time of the inspection.

After the unit conducted an on-site inspection at the firm’s headquarter, the social distancing continued to be widely applied in many provinces. Faced with this situation, the Post-Clearance Audit Department seriously implemented regulations on pandemic prevention while focusing on analysing, evaluating, and handling information related to the special project of cashew nuts. This was a great effort as many customs officers have to work remotely.

With the direction of the leaders of the Post-Clearance Audit Department and the efforts of the staff, by the beginning of September 2021, the Post-Clearance Audit Department has issued inspection results for 18 cases, detecting many signs of violations of firm.

That is, two firms have committed frauds of origin of Vietnamese cashew nuts. According to the requirements of rules of wholly obtained for Vietnam's exported cashew (HS code 08xx), that is 100% of raw cashews are sourced from the domestic market. However, upon inspection, the Customs authority found that the firm provided the C/O authorities with documents that did not match the actual production and business activities of the company. Customs authorities will consider handling two companies for violations of origin for exported goods.

Four firms in the form of export production are suspected of selling for domestic consumption. However, when the customs authority conducted the inspection, the firm has no headquarters and no longer operates at the registered business location. Due to lack of conditions to check, verify and clarify the suspicion, Post-Clearance Audit Department has transferred information about those four firms (according to a criminal denunciation source) to the Binh Phuoc Provincial Police for further clarification.

Notably, the Post-Clearance Audit Department is discussing with the Supreme People's Procuracy to consider signs of violations to initiate prosecution against a firm.

In addition, the Post-Clearance Audit Department reported to the leaders of GDVC to assign some local customs departments to conduct post-clearance audit for 34 firms. At the same time, transferring the list of 280 firms showing signs of risk to local customs departments to study and develop inspection plans in accordance with regulations.

Director of the Post-Clearance Audit Department Nguyen Tien Loc said that, after the pandemic was controlled, the department will continue to promote the topic of post clearance audit for cashew nuts in Binh Phuoc province and other "capitals" of cashews nuts.