A report by the General Audit Office of the Nation (AGN, for its acronym in Spanish) on export controls indicates that there is no internal regulation in the Buenos Aires and Campana "Customs Departments to regulate the actions to be taken by personnel once drugs have been detected."

In addition, the agency points out that in Buenos Aires "none of the terminals has a scanner whose software allows to differentiate between organic and inorganic elements," which would help detect narcotics. And, in the case of Campana, there is no rule that establishes which operations should be controlled; In fact, "they only have a scanner for the verification tasks and in terms of registrations, a book is used that is manually completed".

The Audit investigation, which contains data collected between July 2010 and June 2011, and was approved last year, also covered the San Lorenzo customs office in the province of Santa Fe.

The selection criterion is that, during the 2008-2010 period, the three ports in question accounted for 61% of Argentina's total exports, with operations totaling over US $ 93 billion over a total of almost 150 billion of the US currency.

On the side of the San Lorenzo customs office, the report again highlights the lack of regulations, but in this case linked to the extraction of samples of the minerals that are exported from that port. In this sense, the AGN detected that these controls are performed by "Minera Alumbrera S.A.", which does it with "an automated process and designed under ISO standards."

This characteristic of the Santa Fe port is that they left the checks in the hands of the exporters themselves was also noticed in operations with dangerous cargoes. The audit says: "It was detected that, for some cases related to dangerous cargoes, the samples are provided by the exporting companies and withdrawn by the customs agent once a week. In this respect, the rules establish that, although the extractions can be made by the signature, the procedure should be supervised by a customs agent to verify that the samples delivered correspond to the merchandise to be exported".

Likewise, the findings of these controls show "considerable delays." "The results," says the report, "are sent to the Regional Directorate, and cannot cancel the operation in the computer system Maria (called SIM, used by the customs of the country) until the above address is issued. This situation is verified, for example, also with the company Minera Alumbrera S.A., which (holds) boarding permits without canceling that they are five years old. "

The Audit team visited the sample warehouse at the San Lorenzo customs office, noting that "the door was not sealed, (the place was) saturated and the samples disorderly. Samples of sunflower oil extracted from the year 2006 were also detected. The heads of the section have stated that the storage space is insufficient."

So much so that even "samples were found in the offices of the Customs," which for auditors is an "inadequate place for its preservation."

Staff and Their Tools

Two aspects that coincide in the customs analyzed by the AGN are the lack of personnel to carry out the tasks, and the few work tools.
In the port of Buenos Aires, for example, the heads of the Terminals interviewed by the team of auditors stated that "the staff is insufficient for all the tasks that must be done," adding that "this situation generates delays and increases the possibility Of making mistakes." All of this, without losing sight of the fact that the work "is increasing in complexity and quantity of operations, as well as in the variety of instruments available to carry out the controls."

The administrator of the customs office of Campana, for his part, stated before the Audit that the number of assigned workers "is not enough", which ends up generating "hourly recharge in the agents, delays, inability to perform an adequate management control."

One particularity of this port is that it includes the so-called domiciliary customs, such as Siderca SAIC. The report says that there, "in addition to the Chief, there are only two customs agents (for which reason) the indispensable minimum is not reached and, consequently, each Guard has multiple functions."

On the side of the San Lorenzo customs office, the administrator stated that "the current staffing is insufficient to cover the demand for labor", adding: "The volume of operations was significantly in growth, exports increased, movement Of goods transported and the administrative and control tasks ". This picture, according to the official, brings with it “deterioration."
 
As for the work items, only one of the terminals of the customs office of Buenos Aires, V, has a cold room and, if this type of verification is required in another terminal, the report explains that the refrigerated goods must be Transferred.

In Campana, the head of the Verification Section stated that the Federal Public Revenue Administration (AFIP, for its acronym in Spanish) did not provide the necessary protection elements for the verifiers. Here, again, security in plants, warehouses and ports must be given by importing and exporting companies.

The same official explained that in case of having to do checks with specific elements, such as buster and fibroscopes, they should appeal to other tools, because "the AFIP has only provided them with a camera and a caliber for leather, and no other means Technician to carry out their control tasks," concludes the research.

At the customs in San Lorenzo, the deficiencies pass on the other side. The Audit says: "It was detected that they do not have enough security elements to carry out the control tasks. They have asked for helmets, safety glasses and shoes, vests, gloves, etc., an application that was partially fulfilled."

Planning, Legal Issues and TV

Another one of the coincidences of the customs is the "lack of regulation about the means to use the knowledge of arrival of ships." This means that in the ports "it is not possible to know" which are the ships that will arrive at the terminals, which prevents planning in the control tasks.

The three customs also have a closed circuit television. The issue is that, in all cases, the backup of images is only done by the company providing the service and, in order to access the files - in special situations - it is the AFIP that should request such data.

Regarding legal issues, the three customs register "procedural inactivity," although each has its particularity.

The port of Buenos Aires lacks regulations and computer applications related to the registration and follow-up of complaints. In fact, the AGN warned that "no background was provided on approved procedures for charging complaints".

Regarding the follow-up of the complaints, from its formulation until the conclusion, it was detected that "there is no application that allows to consult them and to register them". And further, "the forms of denunciations are not listed (but) are numbered at the time of their registration in the corresponding Book and manually."

In Campana, for its part, the Audit detected that "the total migration of data between the AFIP systems had not been completed" and that "two computer tools, the Traceability system and the Customs Complaints Summary System (SUCOA) coexist." One of the drawbacks of this situation is that "both systems do not issue automatic alerts regarding prescriptions," the report says.

In addition, in day-to-day operations, "manual recording media are still used". To complete the table: "The files and summaries are kept in lockers, although they clarify that the most relevant if they are locked. 214 complaints were detected at the time of the survey without opening the corresponding summary.
Regarding the staff of the Summaries Section, there are lawyers who perform other activities and therefore do not perform their duties. And there was no inventory of summaries initiated prior to the year 2010 and finalized in July 2011 for export operations. "

As color data from Campana Customs, the researchers found the "substantiation of a previously resolved performance", and "delays of up to 15 months in processing, and formal defects" were observed.
 
As in the Buenos Aires port, when AGN visited the San Lorenzo customs, there were also two systems to manage the legal part, Traceability and SUCOA.
 
In view of such a scenario, the auditors could not obtain from these two systems any list of the universe of summaries initiated - or finalized - between June 2010 and July 2011.
In addition, "formal defects were detected, for example, lack of folio to proceedings that are part of the proceedings, lack of numbers and year of the report of the complaint and dates without a correlation."

Of the alerts (you have an e-mail) and the eternity

To conclude, the report of the General Audit of the Nation notes observations regarding the alert system of the three customs analyzed.

In Buenos Aires, it was detected that "before a control alert, issued by the General Directorate of Customs Control, there is no automatic locking of the operation in the SIM. In fact, they proceed as follows: "The alerts are sent by mail to the customs agents, they must constantly check these mails and determine if they correspond to their jurisdiction. If yes, they must enter the SIM and block the operation themselves. Neither is there an exclusive registry with all the alerts, and the Chiefs of the Terminals have stated that they are very broad. "

On the Campana side, there are missing computer applications for the control of the operation of the enabled warehouses and the disposal of the goods in a situation of lags.

And regarding the expiration of ratings, neither AFIP applications that issued automatic alerts were found, but the SIM is consulted. In this regard, and in the wake of the consultation carried out by the audit team, "two cases where the due dates were set for December 31st 2000" were detected.