Algeria: 110 Customs agents to be sued for bribery… and 8 thousand billion centimes (DA) smuggled overseas

The National Customs’ Administration is poised to set up a general risk office around which will be centralized all the information necessary to upgrade the quality of customs control and to strengthen the fight against financial crime, announced Monday in Algiers, the Director General of the National Customs Services, Mr Kaddour Bentahar.

The relevant general office, whose creation will be accompanied by foreign expertise, will enable the customs administration to better target screening operations at national and regional levels and that the customs services will find all information related to the origin of goods, (destination) transfers, the nature of suppliers, history vis-à-vis importers of customs and tax administrations, ” Mr Bentahar  explained at the El Moudjahid forum.

According to him, with such a monitoring structure, the customs agent “may see more clearly” during the inspection procedures.

The new “customs intelligence and investigation poles”, which will be created under the close supervision of the customs general management to replace ex post control services, will be geared to providing this office with a new management tool, stressed Mr. Bentahar.

 Furthermore, Mr. Bentahar said that the customs services seized more than 1.3 million counterfeit items in 2015 consisting in particular of home appliances, foodstuffs, sporting items and spare parts.

The countries from which these counterfeit products were intercepted in Algeria’s ports and airports came from Spain, which stands in first place, followed by China, Romania, Turkey and India. Between 2007 and 2015, seizures of counterfeit products numbered 9,542,000 articles, he asserted.

Mr Bentahar further said in this regard, that a preliminary draft framework law to define the issue of counterfeiting will soon be presented to the government by the Customs General Management (DGD).

Concerning the fight against smuggling, the Customs General Manager indicated that new monitoring posts will be established at the country’s borders for a better control efficiency.

As for foreign currencies, three (3) million Euros were seized in 2015 from passengers, which represents an increase of 227% from the total amount seized in 2014, he added.

In addition, 10 kilograms of smuggled gold meant to be introduced illegally into the country were seized in 2015, according to Mr Bentahar.

Referring to the status of Authorized Economic Operator (AEO), he said that the DGD had granted this status to 332 companies since its entry into force in 2012, adding that this hassle-free device will allow for priority customs clearance.

These AEO which are mostly large companies represent 15% of the bulk of foreign trade of the country.

In so doing, the customs rules will be shored up shortly by four decrees which were endorsed by the Government.

“These decrees provide for a new organizational chart of the DGD, a reorganization of the general inspection of this administration, a merger between the NHIC and the Customs’ transmission center and the proper training of customs officers”, Mr Bentahar explained.

In 2015, Customs’ tax retrievals reached over 1,000 billion dinars, in addition to 11.5 billion dinars other tax retrievals in terms of litigation, he added.