No plans to tap 2 foreign firms, says Customs chief

MANILA, Philippines – Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Napoleon Morales yesterday denied reports that his agency would hire the services of two foreign firms that would require spending P6.2 billion of taxpayers’ money in the next two years.

Commissioner Morales sent a two-page letter to The STAR and clarified some facts in its editorial, titled “SOS vs smuggling,” which was published the other day.

Morales said they have no plans of hiring the services of the Swiss firm Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) or that of the United States-based firm Dun and Bradstreet, to beef up the bureau’s anti-smuggling efforts.

While he had mentioned the two companies in previous forums, he said it was only intended as examples of companies that the bureau would want to accredit since they are the leading companies in inspection, verification, testing and certification of companies.

But Morales said, “SGS and Dun and Bradstreet and other inspection companies have not yet been accredited by BOC as the Terms of Reference have not yet been finalized.”

“It should be clarified that there is no existing project or pending proposal for any project in the Bureau of Customs that will make our taxpayers fork out P6.2 billion for the next two years,” he added.

He, however, explained that there is an ongoing study on the proposal to accredit private inspection, verification and certification companies as part of the pre-accreditation process of importers.

But this would not be costly to the government. The business entities that wish to be accredited would be the ones that will shoulder the expense in hiring the services of these foreign companies, he said.

Morales also said they are not looking for a company that is engaged in pre-shipment investigation services, like that of SGS, but is studying a proposal on the pre-accreditation process of accredited importers applicants.

If it was true that the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group and the Federation of Philippine Industries brought up the idea of hiring the services of SGS and Dun and Bradstreet, Morales said they have never mentioned the proposal to him.