Apart from figures
and statistics, another indicator for the success of an organization is the customer
satisfaction. To achieve this, Mehdi Karbassian, head of the Iranian Customs
Administration, announced a few good news in a recent interview:
Traditionally, government employees
used to feel that they were above their visitors, who had to wait behind closed doors
until the employee permitted them to enter the room. This has imposed itself on our
culture for a long time. Even after the Islamic Revolution, despite the reiterations of
officials to respect people, this culture was not given up.
Aware of this issue, the management of Customs Administration with the cooperation of
other colleagues, has chosen this motto for itself: “Customs: Trusted by the
Government, Servant of the Nation”. We have been endeavoring to establish this motto
among all the Customs staff. Now all around the country, in 140 Customs Offices, you can
see how this concept has been materialized. Based on our beliefs, no one has committed an
offense unless it is proved otherwise.
Like other countries, we have also prepared a computerized list of those who are
“suspected” to be violators, but not yet offenders. For example, there are
certain countries which produce illegal drugs and passengers from those nations are
checked more carefully than others.
As another strategy, we have put employees in positions which fit their capabilities and
characters best. For example, if a person who knows regulations very well, cannot
establish good relations with people, he will be working in a capacity not directly in
contact with people. Contrarily, an employee who is patient and tolerant is employed to
deal with passengers directly.
Moreover, there is an incentive system established in the Customs, which helps us to
differentiate between hardworking employees and less active ones. This is despite the fact
that government managers are not empowered to offer incentives to or punish their
employees. One of the examples of such a lack of power is that if an employee is involved
in bribery in front of others, his manager cannot do anything but to suspend him/her from
work for a period of three months. Then the case will be dealt with by Administrative
Offenses Board and if the employee is convicted by the Board, the case will go to the
Appeals Court and Administrative Tribunal, and if no valid evidence is offered there, the
primary conviction can be nullified. Then the offensive employee is able to return to his
work against the will of his manager. In spite of all these shortcomings, we have tried to
reward exemplary employees in order to encourage others to work better.
The most significant practical result of such methods is the minimizing of the time needed
to perform customs formalities. For example, for exporting non-oil commodities the time
was reduced to one day first and then it was further decreased to just two hours. Now two
hours is the maximum time spent by exporters in the “Red Line”. If a commodity
remains in a Customs Office for more than two hours, the management and the staff of that
office will be held accountable for that, to the extent that the manager may be dismissed
for incompetence.
We have been able to achieve this through the elimination of unnecessary formalities,
revising regulations and solving the problem of bureaucracy within the Customs
Administration. This could be considered as a great achievement for the Customs
Administration, because previously the same procedure took 2-3 days to complete.
The next success the organization has achieved is that by minimizing the customs
formalities, the shortcomings of other organizations in charge of standards, quarantine
and banking became apparent. While before that the lengthy formalities at Customs office
was used as a pretext by these organizations for hiding their own shortcomings. They
started to correct and improve their procedures afterwards.
One important measure by the Customs has been listing the names of those legal and real
entities that are credible and trustworthy. These were the ones that have done their
obligations quite well and on time. They receive special facilities at the Customs. With
the application of ASICUDA system in the “Green Line,” only 10% and in the
Yellow Line only 20% of commodities and documents are inspected. Traders can declare their
goods before coming to Customs and receive customs clearance immediately.
In two months such a facility will be offered to ships carrying cargoes to the Iranian
ports. Once a ship departs for Iranian ports, the cargo owner can report to a Customs
Office, in Bandar Abbas for example, and declare the cargo manifest and get the clearance.
So that as soon as the ship lands at the destination port, the cargo can be carried to any
spot within the country. Through this system, there is no need for commodities to be
stored in warehouses.
Another considerable measure by the Customs Administration has been the implementation of
a rule which was formerly ratified, but never translated into action. The rule was related
to inspecting the commodities at the private warehouse of the owner. Customs officers go
to inspect goods on site without the need to transfer them to the Customs. The direct
impact of this measure was to reduce costs, accelerating the trade activities, preserving
liquidity and preventing any damage which might otherwise be incurred on the goods.
Another change is related to the mission of Customs Administration, which is based upon
not just making income for the government, but on such objectives as being at the service
of manufacturing and exports activities and preserving the interests of consumers –
through checking the quality of goods and standards.
Moreover, the draft copy of new Iranian Customs regulations is at the final stage of
preparation now and will be released by mid-September in order to collect the suggestions
of experts and officials. In two months time, the Customs will finalize the regulations
and will submit it to the Cabinet. The main objectives behind the revision is the
transparency of economic affairs, respecting and trusting people and promotion of law
abiding.
