Organized Crime in Southeast Europe by Ekavi Athanassaopolou

Author:Ekavi Athanassaopolou [Athanassaopolou, Ekavi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, Western, Political Science, International Relations, General, Social Science, Sociology
ISBN: 9781317999454
Google: XdmMAQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-10-18T01:19:47+00:00

CORRUPTION IN CUSTOMS AGENCIES IN SEE COUNTRIES

In general, customs agencies are prone to corruption as custom officers have direct discretionary access to tangible wealth. Customs agencies are normally responsible for implementing the foreign trade policy of the country and managing the customs rates, quantitative restrictions, rules of the origin of goods, anti-dumping measures and the like; preventing imports and general trafficking of undesirable and restricted goods, such as weapons, dangerous chemical substances, narcotics etc.; collecting considerable income from import and possible export taxes; and encouraging exports through customs rebates (holidays), tax holidays and other measures.

Related to the performance of these vital functions, various corrupt practices have been identified in the customs agencies of SEE counties, including routine corruption, occurring when private operators (consignee or consignor) pay bribes to smoothen custom procedures or accelerate them); fraudulent corruption, when private operators try to pay less tax than due, or no tax at all, by paying bribes to buy the custom officer's ‘blind eye’ or his active cooperation in avoiding proper customs clearance procedure; and criminal corruption, occurring when operators pay bribes to permit a completely illegal, lucrative operation (trafficking in drugs, weapons, people or abuse of export of promotion scheme etc.).

The officials often do not come directly into contact with the users of the customs services, but rather with their intermediaries. The forwarding agency transports goods from the place of departure to the place of destination. The owner of the goods has an interest in seeing his goods cross the border quickly, and therefore he allows the forwarding agency to bribe the customs officials, or they do it together. Often customs agents in SEE countries do not use their discretionary right to check the validity of transit documents and open sealed vehicles. The geographic position of SEE favours smuggling and various illegal activities, such as trafficking people. Quite often, goods enter the transit country but never leave. Corrupt customs officials might record that the freight actually left the country even if did not (Begovic et al. 2002: 118–20).

Why are customs officials in SEE among the most susceptible to such corrupt practices, and what explains the widespread corruption in the customs agencies of SEE? Various reasons are responsible for the corrupt behaviour of custom officials in SEE: low salaries and the impoverishment of state employees due to the collapse of the state sector, the introduction of economic sanctions on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and its economic isolation, ineffective penal policies, rigid trade policies and commercial protectionism in parallel with growth in the volume of trade, poor human resources management systems, and the almost unchecked power of customs officials.

Customs officials are susceptible to corrupt behaviour because they gain material or non-material benefits for themselves and their families. The transaction implies a two-way flow. A corrupt customs official violates customs clearance regulations and applies a lower tariff rate than required by law. The corrupter corrupts the custom official with money or other favours. According to Becker's model of the correlation of supply and demand and price the amount of the rent will depend on the demand for that corruption (service).

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