Private Swiss company, SGS, to replace the Cameroon customs

Some officials are determined to strip the customs off their tasks and assign them to a private Swiss company.

The global trend is the rejection of these private inspection companies that bring no added value but charge outrageously for their benefits. Are we heading towards a dismantling of the Cameroon customs administration?

If the concept seems rather daring, some senior state officials already appear to have incorporated this possibility with suspicious determination.

A draft contract is underway between Cameroon and the Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS) to strip the Cameroon customs of its sovereign prerogatives and entrust them to the private Swiss company.

In this part of the project contract, SGS would have over a period of ten years all of its audits and evaluation of the goods. Suffice to say that this will be a private customs and the Cameroon customs will simply work behind the scene.

Problem this draft contract arises

While the balance sheet of SGS is strongly criticized in Cameroon, those of other similar companies around the world are too. This is because ultimately, the states that have entered into these contracts in the past generally have regretted their decision. So much so that in a statement made on June 20, 2013, the West African and Central Customs spoke clearly against the renewal of contracts with these private companies.

Inspection which represented at most a bottleneck which “strangely required an additional defeat based on the competitiveness of foreign trade operations” in the West and Central African region. Many contracts sighted the provision of inspection services (both before and after shipment to destination) were in place. Under these contracts, private companies performed a series of functions on behalf of governments including the determination of taxes and customs duties on imported goods, risk management and control of goods crossing international borders.

“In some cases, these contracts have proven detrimental to building customs capacity and have impeded the achievement of expected benefits including the transfer of skills and knowledge through customs.”

Detrimental contract

To avoid the implementation of these contracts detrimental to countries where private businesses prevail, African customs felt that governments should provide customs authorities the political will and support to enable them to exercise their mandate to perform the Customs duties covered by existing contracts but above all, "they should be fully involved in customs administrations and in contract negotiations where exceptional circumstances require the conclusion or extension of such contracts (in a rebuilding situation following a conflict, for example); and ensure that these contracts are of short duration and provide for the transfer of skills, knowledge, technology and appropriate performance measures and arrangements for their management, to ensure compliance with the obligations undertaken in the framework of international commitments (WTO Agreement on evaluation for example)."

The senior officials who want to lead Cameroon in this contract are rowing against the current interests of their country and they know it, as they are for some seasoned executives in customs trades. A wonder if they have not satisfied their own interests before those of an entire people.

If the draft agreement stipulates that inspections are going abroad, it has not yet began because the private company that bills for its services both to the state and economic operators in addition to classic costs of foreign trade operations in general, is content to scan containers that enter Cameroon (when their scanner is not faulty).

Suffice to say that there is no added value to this point of view, since Cameroon is capable of purchasing scanners as we have seen recently with mobile Customs scanners to track down the fraudsters.

In Africa, the latest example of a country refusing such private inspection companies is Togo. The Commissioner General of the Togolese Revenue Authority recently requested support from the World Customs Organization (WCO) to assist in its initiative of re-appropriation of the missions outsourced to the inspection company.

The first priority will be given to customs valuation. Mauritania and Nigeria have already succeeded in this matter and WCO also supports Ghana and DR Congo in a substantial way to allow them to leave the yoke of private inspection companies that do nothing but enjoy undue enrichment at the expense of states and economic operators.

In the case of Cameroon, the will to renew and extend the contract of SGS disappoint, even beyond the borders. For Cameroon, Customs have been cited as an example around the world for its performance in recent years and the reforms implemented to strengthen its effectiveness in revenue and border surveillance.

Technology tools such as GPS for tracking of goods, the implementation of the ASYCUDA system to simplify the process and shorten the time of the transactions, and even experimenting with mobile scanners to track fraudulent shipments are all accepted measures in other countries, where Cameroon customs are regularly invited to come and give lessons.

Another bad example exhibited by inspection companies is Ivory Coast. This country was reputed to have one of the most successful customs during the last decade.

But two years ago, a private inspection was recruited. Since then, revenues are plummeting. It is likely that those who are in high authority, conspired for SGS to take over from Customs in Cameroon.