According to a report by the Comptroller General of Costa Rica, Argentina’s equivalent to the Audit, Customs of that country has "poor mechanisms" when hiring new agents, which "hinders the selection of technically qualified staff."

The Central Control body came to this conclusion after analyzing the HRM Directorate General of Customs (DGA) and notes that in the recruitment process no specific courses on customs practices are held, and that there are "risks of discretion in appointments."

Why did the Comptroller put the magnifying glass on Customs? According to the report, an activity is "characterized by constant exposure to risks." So much so that "between 2009 and July 2014, 295 complaints were filed" against its employees and those pitfalls are linked precisely "to their roles in the revenue collection, trade, border security and prevention of change and transfer of illegal goods."

And to all this, the researchers added a negative assessment of the customs activity at the regional level. The Comptroller says that "according to the Trade Facilitation Index of the World Economic Forum, the Latin American region with the exception of Chile, it is still at low levels of trade facilitation, due to corruption and lack of physical security."

With this framework, the Watchdog began its study of a formed unit, up to 2014, 639 staff members, of which 17% was appointed on an interim basis. On their roster, Customs itself acknowledged that it "does not have a staff with the technical knowledge as it pertains to its role," and added that, according to last year’s numbers, 92% of customs officials "have a minimum professional or technical" grade education.

In such a context, the spotlight fell on the selection process. In that sense, the report noted that when a vacancy occurs in Customs, dependence does not start a search on their own, but must perform a "motion of personnel" to the Directorate General of Civil Service.
It is this second office that defines the requested specialty, the bases and the call for proposals and the evaluation of applicants.

However, the power of this address is not there: at the end of the process, they select a short list with the most qualified and then Customs intervenes, interviewing members of that list of candidates.

A limitation for Customs is that, by regulation, is required to decide whether any of the candidates who sends the Civil Service within 10 working days, and that led to compulsory that "charges is due to appoint officials who do not necessarily It has the 'atinencia' (profession) required and suitable for the job."

This led to the Comptroller stating that "the mechanisms are inadequate to ensure the technical suitability of candidates subject to the recruitment and selection of staff of the Directorate General of Customs."

It is this methodology that could well be conceived and carried out with the idea of a tandem, in fact "it has not materialized in concrete collaboration" the report says, because "there is evidence of specific knowledge performed in customs matters.

How are the agent’s profiles formed? The Comptroller explained that there are "specialties" officially approved in Costa Rica civil service and in that sense Customs, when looking for an employee, identifies the "specialty" of the post in question.

"Each specialty is associated with one or more university degrees, but only the expertise can be identified, not the associated career," expand the auditors.

And it is in this instance where obstacles arise and to confuse, because while in Customs there are 10 specialties (accounting, law, finger prints, statistics, border management, information technology, general administration, audit, office work and chemistry), the customs management, for example, appears associated with 83% of jobs, and is also linked to more than 180 professional and technical careers. "This concludes the Comptroller's situation is an obstacle to the selection of technically qualified staff."

However, once they pass this phase, the applicant should undergo a process of adaptation to the new job. About that the Watchdog noted "shortcomings in the coordination and implementation of the initial training program for the Directorate of Customs."

The problem is that the DGA is under the Ministry of Finance, and while this portfolio has an instance for training entrants (68 hours of virtual studied plus a final), the program is not mandatory and above all, there is no specific course intended for Customs personnel.

All this evidences, according to the Comptroller, a "weak coordination between areas with concern in the matter, i.e., the management of the Centre for Research and Fiscal Training -in charge of designing the training programs -and the Department of Management Potential Human the Ministry of Finance.”