Over half of Customs staff not trained to use million-ringgit scanners, report shows

KUALA LUMPUR, June 16 — Over half of the employees at the Royal Malaysian Customs Department has not received training to use cargo scanners worth millions of ringgit, the Auditor-General’s Report 2013 disclosed today.

In the Auditor-General’s Department’s survey of 32 Customs officers using the machines in five states, 56 per cent or 18 respondents never attended courses on operating the scanners, while 31 per cent admitted that they were not skilled at using the machines.

All of the respondents had never attended troubleshooting courses, with 81 per cent or 26 respondents admitting that they were not skilled in troubleshooting the machine.

The AG report noted that this could affect the Customs department’s work in “detecting leakages” in revenue collection and valuation of taxes.

The Customs department said on February 26, 2014 that scheduled training was carried out intermittently, adding that it will carry out four training sessions this year.

Besides gaining skills through training, officers also learn through experience in using the scanners, the department said.

Officers tasked with operating the machines are subjected to “job rotation”, with new officers needing time to learn how to use the cargo scanners, it explained.

The report found that the department had followed global best practices with its purchase of 20 scanning machines for the sum of RM207.48 million from companies with “proven track records”.

Four of the machines have yet to arrive, but two of the 16 scanners were already in use by 2013 and have recorded a high annual breakdown rates of 11.8 per cent per annum and 15.6 per cent  per annum respectively, exceeding the 10 per cent rate deemed as acceptable by the Auditor-General’s Department.

In a May 7 reply this year, the Customs department said that it had maintainence contracts for all scanning machines, but noted that repairs may drag on due to difficulties in finding spare parts.

Aging machines - with some purchased in 2001 - would also be gradually replaced based on the Finance Ministry’s approved allocations, it said.

The Customs department said the vendor of some of the machines - including the two with high breakdown rates - had introduced some changes last October, including upgrading certain systems.

The department said the vendor will train its officers to identify and fix minor problems, while technical assistance will be on “standby” 24 hours everyday to deal with damages.