Poe bats for swift digitization in BOC to curb corruption

MANILA, Philippines —  Senator Grace Poe on Saturday said the Bureau of Customs (BOC) should speed up the digitization of its internal processes that could help stop corruption in the agency.

Poe was referring to the BOC’s P6 billion automation project that will also limit human intervention which is essential in helping curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

“Sa ngayon, sa gitna ng pandemya, kinakailangan ng gobyerno na makakuha ng karagdagang pondo para sa paglaban natin sa COVID-19 at gayundin sa pagbangon ng ating ekonomiya. ‘Yung nawawala sa atin sa koleksiyon ay malaking tulong sana sa ating mga kababayan lalo na sa panahong ito,” Poe said in a statement.

(Amid the pandemic, the government needs additional funds to fight COVID-19 as well as revive the economy. The loss in collection would have helped our countrymen.)

“The BOC has been losing billions for years from technical smuggling, and one of the solutions pointed out at the last DBCC hearing was to fully automate its system and eliminate human intervention,” the senator added.

The senator added that full automation of the BOC’s procedures could also decrease technical smuggling which is the “undervaluation, under-declaration of the volume shipped, misclassification, and diversion of cargo.”

Meanwhile, Poe also noted that the agency had failed to meet its collection target by P30.73 billion in 2019.

“This may be a mere five percent of the total collection target by the bureau, but P30 billion is still a considerable amount especially as we battle with the pandemic and struggle to help the most affected sectors,” Poe said.

/MUF