When people talk about the Customs agency, some always think of logistics because it is where all products that are being either sent or received in any country around the world. Most people think about the functions that are one of the mainly applied by any operating government agencies around the world. However, in developing countries consider this agency is one of the most controversial in their community.
Every government around the world are concerned about the issue of corruption that has been always tagged in document falsification. Reporting of wrong materials or freights has been always an issue in this particular department of every government. This is because ports and shipments through land, air, and water ports have been infested by bribery allegations due to the involvement of criminal syndicates, which has been responsible for using the government offices to compromise legit shipments. In return, government officials has been requested to attend inquest proceedings to investigate suspicious activities in the agency.
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| Customs with their functions |
Every country in the world has their respective regulations according to the management of their political culture and social principles. Officers and personnel are always assigned to check and validate any item being shipped to have proper documentation procedures before they are going to allow the product to be shipped from other areas. The name of the person, the recipient, charges, and the proper documentation should be presented by either the sender or receiver in order to validate if the product is safe for shipment or to clear any legal requirements to be able to undergo a procedure to render logistics operations.
However, there are several controversies involving the procedures and applications made by the personnel of the customs agency. These are practices that involve any personnel or agencies regarding legal or ethical issues that attracts media attention. For as long as there are corrupt officials and manipulative syndicates, the issue of customs will never fade, which is causing a problem to the authorities.
Interesting facts why customs department is a controversial agency
1. Allegations of corruption: Customs agencies around the world are always involved in corruption allegations. This is due to the ability of the personnel to take additional charges that are more than the recommended amount of charges being applied by the operating agency. There are numerous reported cases of unexplained discrepancies with regards to the funds of personnel, the agency, and third party organizations or individuals.
2. Delayed shipments: Sometimes, human errors accounts for the delay of product or services delivery in either to or from the point of destinations. The delay might be attributed from wrong designation of proper area of destination for the product or service. Costumers, investors, and shipment companies can be affected by this particular problem in the shipment processing units of the agency.
3. High taxes on shipments: Customs agencies are being criticized for implementing high taxes to any imported goods from other countries. Shipments have a different variety of charges depending on the amount of goods and services that were imported from other countries. There are some cheap items that were overshadowed by the extreme amount of charges that is concerning some recipients because they are going to pay more than the value of the item.
4. Extortion: Custom officials are involved in several allegations of extortion practices. This can be found in airports, ports, and in delivery mails. Residents are deeply concerned about this particular issue for the reason that it is where small scale personnel are now training themselves to become a future big time law-breaker because they use extortion as part of their routine. Using their position makes it as an advantage for them to gain self-greed by benefiting against others.
5. Bullet scams: There are airport agencies around the world that restricts travellers to bring any metallic objects with the exception of coins, clothing accessories, and electronic gadgets. However, corrupt officials are using this opportunity to invoke fear and intimidation by planting bullets towards the baggages of passengers. This includes planting the bullets to the pockets of the baggage as well as with the clothing pockets, which will detect any metal objects and hazardous materials. They will eventually delay the passenger's flight by means of extortion.
6. Disease outbreak: Customs agency is also at risk for being the first to be bracing the force of epidemic diseases. There are contaminated shipments that can be contaminated by a virulent or highly toxic material that can be infectious to any individual, plants, and animals. Patients infected with a highly contagious diseases can initially infect workers in the ports or airport areas, which causes another outbreak of a certain community.
7. Terrorism: Customs are controversial when they were responsible for loopholes that allowed terrorist members to enter a community. This is because they fail to inspect baggages, individuals, and shipments that are being used by some of the most dangerous organizations, which could play a significant role for ensuring the security of the society.
8. Unexplained wealth of officials: Customs officials are questioned for their rapid wealth gain, especially after their term of service. They gained multiple bank accounts that are linked to their names and other pseudo names, which hides questionable weatlh gains. Even ordinary staff members are also indicted to several issues of corrupt allegations of having unexplained properties such as homes and businesses that costs more than the total salaries since they were employed from the institution.
9. Smuggling: Customs agencies are usually being bribed by syndicates so that prohibted substances can be imported from a foreign country. This involves importing of endangered species, counterfeit items, and prohibited substances that are addictive to users. Officials who are permitting syndicates are likely to be involved in illegal trade due to their connections with mafia organizations or individuals who are influential enough to continue their illega practices.
10. Stealing shipment items: Personnel are usually cannot tolerate themselves to be tempted on luxury items, allowing them to instead steal it, rather than sending it to the rightful owners. If you are in the customs, you are usually responsible for segregating shipments and remittances to be sent to random residents. The problem is all about keeping temptations to be actively rampant among custom personnel who were caught ransacking shipments, violating criminal laws.
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