The General Department of Vietnam Customs will inspect the feedback on the behaviour of customs officers at Noi Bai airport

Professional activities of customs officer at Noi Bai International Airport

Accordingly, Tien Phong newspaper published an article: "The truth is that customs officers caused pressure and requested passenger to get off the plane to delete Facebook posts" (published on February 1, 2023) and several articles posted on Facebook about the incident that occurred at Noi Bai International Airport on January 28, 2023.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs said that, right after receiving the information, following the spirit of not covering up and strictly handling violations (if any), the General Department of Vietnam Customs proactively and urgently assigned the Inspectorate Department to chair and coordinate with the Personnel and Organization Department to set up an inspection team to examine, verify and clarify the above case to handle following regulations strictly, ensuring discipline of cadres and civil servants of Customs sector.

In addition, the General Department of Vietnam Customs said they would inform newspapers and radio stations as soon as the results of the inspection and verification of the case are available.

Regarding this incident, the Manager of Noi Bai International Airport Customs Branch, Do Manh Hung, said that the Branch has always thoroughly understood that civil servants and employees in the whole unit must seriously and fully comply with the provisions of the law and Customs sector on etiquette, manners, a culture of behaviour, strengthen discipline in duties performance.

The Customs Branch confirmed that the incident about communication behaviour between the unit's officer and passenger who was on exit the country to go to Japan on the night of January 28, 2023, was a conflict between two individuals and was not related to the process of carrying out customs procedures of Customs Branch for passengers on exit. Specifically, the above incident happened between Deputy Head of the Export Luggage Procedure Team Nguyen Phuc Hai and a female passenger who was in the exit country for going to Japan at the check-in counter for priority passengers of two airlines (VietJet and Bamboo) and passenger boarding bridge. Passengers said that customs officers had a lack of standard of behaviour in communication.

As soon as the incident happened, the Manager of the Noi Bai International Airport Customs Branch directly phoned the Head of the Export Luggage Procedures Team and Nguyen Phuc Hai to request a report for the entire content of the incident to understand the nature and time solution for handling if the civil servant made a mistake in performing his duties, affecting the customs procedure process, affecting the duty of the units for passengers on exit.

According to the report of the civil servant, on the night of January 28, Mr Nguyen Phuc Hai went to the check-in counter, as mentioned above, to ask for information about tickets and flights for his relatives.

When waiting to ask the check-in counter staff, a female passenger lined up behind, outside the priority area, to ask for directions to the toilet area. Even though the passenger was instructed to go to the restroom outside the priority area, the passenger still entered the priority area.

Therefore, when re-directed, there was a misunderstanding between this passenger and officer Nguyen Phuc Hai, which led to a conflict in communication.

Passengers on social networks about the behavior of officer Nguyen Phuc Hai later posted the incident.

According to Noi Bai International Airport Customs Branch, although this is a personal incident in communication occurring outside the duty area, after reviewing the report and checking the camera at Noi Bai International Airport, the unit's leader reminded and strictly corrected office Nguyen Phuc Hai because of negligence in communication, especially lack of subtle mind and understanding for passengers on exit when passengers are busy with procedures, have to wait in line, easily leading to frustration and misunderstanding.

After the above incident, leaders of the Noi Bai International Airport Customs Branch organized a thorough understanding in the unit on the implementation of regulations of the Ministry of Finance, General Department of Vietnam Customs and Hanoi Customs Department on etiquette, manners, behavioural culture, strengthening discipline in performing duties, exemplary, understanding in communication and working with people and businesses, avoiding to occur incident as mentioned above.

The Noi Bai International Airport Customs Branch also considered this case as a lesson for each officer and employee of the unit about constantly improving knowledge, expertise and, subtle manners, humanity while working as well as in life.