Even if the management changes, the customs regulations and bribes do not change.
After nearly a week of customs inspection, 20% of the cargo was no longer marketable, and some was stolen. Why and how this happens—read below.
Less than two months have passed since the blatant revelation of yet another wave of active "combat operations" by Ukrainian customs at seaports was made public (read the article "Hybrid Warfare in Ukrainian Ports"). Less than a month has passed since the perpetually hungry "soldiers" of the customs front distinguished themselves once again (for more details, see the article "Customs Reform? More Chatter!").
And again…
Chronicle of military operations (from the forwarder's report):
1. Documents were submitted to the electronic system for clearance on September 25, 2014, at 10:26 a.m. We received clearance for the cargo four hours later. The cargo consisted of tools and spare parts, which arrived on the m/v HANJIN ROME in container No. PCIU8276931. Customs Inspector N.P. Ambarnikov authorized the vehicle to be loaded from the port.
He decided to check what was actually in the container. He prescribed "control methods": weighing ("On the initiative of the customs authority") and inspection ("Based on the results of the implementation of the Risk Management System"). There was no response to comments about the cargo already being declared at the recipient's customs office, that it was sufficient to simply note customs concerns in the documents, and that it was only possible (necessary) to quickly dispatch the cargo to its final destination.
Moreover, no one will violate any customs regulations if they send a customs-approved driver from a freight forwarder company with many years of experience, a customs seal, financial liability for non-delivery, etc. But... It seems the real problem was that the cargo and container were declared by a freight forwarder, a member of the "NO Corruption in Transport" movement, who categorically refused to "pay on site." All "conversations" with the head of the customs department, S.N. Mazur, yielded no satisfactory results. It's time to get down to the "port-customs madness"...
2. On September 26.09.14, 4, this container was loaded onto a vehicle and was ready for inspection. It's worth noting that, according to all customs regulations, such an inspection should be completed in no more than four hours! Under any circumstances! This case is not exceptional; the cargo can be easily unloaded and reloaded from the container, and no extension of time is required. However, the usual "customs work" began, punishing the "refusal man," i.e., anyone who refuses to pay bribes on the spot.
Friday is a short day, so the "refusenik" needs to be punished with maximum demurrage. For some unknown reason, customs officials postponed the inspection until the weekend. Naturally, without a written justification.
3. On Saturday, September 27, 2014, the container was opened and full unloading and identification began. This was the request of customs chief S.N. Mazur. A request to record in writing the requirement for a full inspection and sorting of the cargo was refused. All that was accomplished during the entire day was unloading at the Ilyichevsk port warehouse. They decided not to work after dark. If they were going to punish a "refuser," they'd do it for real!
On Sunday, September 4, 28.09.14, they began sorting the cargo, counting all the items, photographing each item, and weighing each box. After all this had happened, when there were no more questions about the cargo, they began loading it back into the container. They then drew up an inspection report and a non-conformity report and stated that the customs officer had ordered the recipient's documents to be redone, including a full description of the cargo as on the invoice. When I asked to reflect this in the inspection report and not delay delivery of the cargo to the recipient under customs control, I received the expected refusal.
Notice how the customs process is structured? They're designed to coerce, compel, subjugate, and perhaps ultimately squeeze something out of them... Oh, by the way, after all the inspections, the most "terrifying" thing they found in the container was that not all the boxes had the country of origin listed! The customs inspection report revealed everything that was listed in the cargo documents. Great job at the government's expense!
5. It wasn't until September 29, 2014, that is, Monday, that they finished loading the cargo into the container and submitted the entire package of documents for clearance again. When they asked again whether it was possible to clear the cargo without the recipient amending "this nonsense" in the documents, they were categorically refused. They insisted on a written refusal to clear the cargo. The documents remained idle for another day. The truck with the loaded and inspected container spent another day at the port. This is already the fourth! The freight forwarder contacted the deputy head of the Ilyichevsk customs post, A.V. Artemenko, who began to suggest a written refusal to clear the cargo, but in his opinion, "this issue also requires lengthy consideration."
6. We completed the paperwork and departed only on September 30th. All of this "activity" by customs officials, paid for by the state, is meticulously documented; there are photographs of both the cargo and the container. There are also videos of attempts to persuade the super-customs officer, S.N. Mazur, to stop the harassment and send the cargo to the recipient under full customs security, rather than subjecting the carrier's vehicle to a nearly week-long standstill.
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This is what the cargo presented for customs inspection looked like.
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This is what the container and cargo looked like after customs procedures at the port of Ilyichevsk.
What we have as a result:
— almost a week of truck downtime, a long-distance driver without wages and without paying taxes on wages to the budget;
— almost a week of stupid, meaningless “work” by a dozen government customs officials with absolutely zero results for the state from such “work”;
— nearly a week's worth of payments for the truck and container's downtime at the port, unnecessary payments for weighing the cargo and for inspection, and that amounts to thousands and thousands of hryvnias.
— According to information from the recipient, up to 20% of the boxes were damaged after the barbaric loading and unloading at the port. Several boxes containing scarce instruments were reported missing, indicating simple theft during inspection.
— The work of Ilyichevsk customs officers had no impact on customs payments to the budget. The recipient's declaration was completed as requested, i.e., with the initial customs payments.
I'm forced to repeat all my points from previous articles about customs work in Ukraine:
"The ATO cycle is closing. Military operations in the hybrid wars at ports and the ATO continue. It begins according to the usual scenario: global hype about Ukraine being a wonderful transit nation, followed by transport paralysis, partly bribery, partly the loss of cargo flows, the ruin of freight forwarders who attract cargo flows, problems at the ports and in the Ukrainian state itself. And at the center of events is the Anti-Transit Operation by Ukrainian customs. In recent years, even the prosecutor's office has announced that hundreds of thousands of containers have been inspected at ports, hundreds of thousands of trucks weighed, with the efficiency of such customs work being about... one percent!"
Customs officials forced freight forwarders to hand over hundreds of millions of hryvnias to private companies handling customs weighing and inspection arbitrariness at ports. The state is wasting millions on maintaining customs at ports, and nothing has changed.
I personally wrote a dozen articles about "killing transit" through Ukraine, appealing to port authorities, the ministry, and customs—back under Yanukovych. But even under the new government, everything continues, just as it did under the old one.
I have to repeat it!
To improve the situation with transit cargo clearance at ports and stop destroying the industry, our customs service must do the following:
1. Immediately change the format and forms of control at ports and transfer all actual customs control functions to the customs offices of final destination within the country. For transit, only entry and exit control.
2. Immediately disband the dozens of services within customs that are completely harmful to the state and that simply profit from customs value, weight, invoices, inspections, and weighing. In reality, they're simply hiding behind these fine-sounding terms to perpetuate Azarov-Kaletnik-style corruption.
3. Send thousands of pseudo-customs officers, who are currently terrorizing businesses at checkpoints under the guise of government service, to the real ATO, with a real effectiveness rate of about one percent.
If A. V. MakarenkoIf the head of the entire Ukrainian customs service is truly committed to a positive outcome for the state, then he must accept the challenge from the country, from the patriots. Or resign. It seems he intends to implement reforms for a long time... Replacing customs chiefs with former "quasi-system" officials is not a reform—it's a sham and a real crime against the state. Businesses "tied" to the ports see no other "reforms."
Ukrainian transport workers don't deserve to see the "best sons" of the previous system return to their lucrative customs posts. Elections, re-elections to various councils, and so on are no excuse for a service like customs. Customs reforms must be carried out without regard for elections, but with regard for business and the needs of Ukrainian citizens. For the sake of their future. Meanwhile, the ATO (Anti-Transit Operation in Ports) continues. Ukraine's customs service has now turned against it. It appears that in full force...
After the first two articles, I spoke with the head of the entire Ukrainian customs service, A.V. Makarenko, and met with the head of the Southern Customs, Alekseyev (the sixth since the beginning of the year, and clearly not the last). They "know everything," "see everything," and agree with every argument... Concerned activists try and convince them: ports are not a place for collecting customs duties and engaging in wholesale extortion through "fake application of control forms," but a place for the instant clearance of cargo at its final destination! And while "everyone knows everything," this same "everyone" continues... Because the system of extortion at ports is structured in such a way that it brings hundreds of millions of hryvnias a year to those at the very top of the "pyramid." Who else can one turn to?
P.S. Odessa, October 14, 2014. Yesterday, the new head of the Southern Customs Office was introduced—the 6th or 7th this year (and what difference does it make if the system doesn't change?).
Alexander Zakharov, coordinator of the movement "NO corruption in transport", Odessa.
Argument
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