Facilitating Trade:
Improving Customs Risk Management Systems
In the OIC Member States
92
Most of the OIC MS understand the importance of modern data analysis tools (BI and data
mining). They are unable to implement data analysis tools due to the lack of funding and IT
capacity.
The CDPS should support the customs procedures, process automation and service oriented.
Moreover, as one of the key elements of the trade facilitation concept, the CDPS should provide
the traders with services for easier and effective day-to-day work performance through an
integrated and modernized customs environment and transparent communication with other
governmental agencies (OGA’s) and law enforcement agencies.
The different IT solutions offer different support functionalities and coverage of the CRM cycle.
The main difference between embedded RM in the CDPS and ICRM is that embedded RM only
supports the selectivity stage of the CRM cycle, while ICRM is supporting the entire risk cycle.
The ICRM allows a common risk repository that can be shared and used across several agencies.
ICT systems to support customs clearance and trade statistics have been developed and
deployed effectively worldwide since the 80s, and public administrations have used IT since the
60s for internal processing and storage of data.
With production networks extending globally andmore countries engaging in global trade flows,
the supply chains have become fragmented and complex and therefore more sensitive to time,
costs and predictability.
The IT support functionalities and depth of implementation and effectiveness of CRM are closely
related, which are also reflected in the findings of the OIC MS cross-country comparison. OIC MS
with embedded RM modules in the CDPS reach a lower level of CRM cycle coverage limited to
selectivity. Limitations of the CRM support systems inhibit CA to deepen the implementation, in
particular with regards to feedback, reporting and evaluating. Therefore, the effectiveness of the
CRM is very likely to be impacted. Efficiency depends on adequate risk profiles, which need to
be continuously updated to respond to the risk assessment, feedback, and evaluation. Since they
are updated frequently, this approach causes challenges for the operators while adapting their
behavior accordingly.
The CDPS with the proprietary SQL language allows only static risk profiles to be applied in the
CRM. Furthermore, CDPS limit the information on the scoring on the risk profiles and the risk
indicators and provide instruction for customs control only on the highest risk profile. This is
the case when customs declaration hits two or more risk profiles (e.g., a CD is channeled to two
yellow and one red channel), but the customs officer is instructed to carry the customs control
according to the highest risk profile.
The cross-country comparison shows that to deepen and improve CRM, the limitation of the IT
systems have to be overcome. In case of risk management modules embedded in CDPS, the
functionalities can be enhanced by adding a CDPS external transactional system that provides
additional selectivity functionalities or by implementing an ICRM (se .
Box 7: Development of additional CRM system in OIC MS
Indonesia recently implemented an ICRM platform, allowing Customs and other OGAs as well
as the Indonesian SW to actively participate in the RM process by providing risk indicators and
risk profiles. This ICRM is external to the CDPS managed by Customs.
Ivory Coast and Mali Customs Administrations have undertaken activities to develop their risk
management applications as external systems, notably with the technical assistance of the
International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) West Africa Regional Technical Assistance Centre (West
AFRITAC).