Regular meeting of the working group of the Joint Collegium of Customs Services of the Member States of the EAEU on the Risk Management System Development  was held in Yerevan.

The press service of the State Revenue Committee of  Armenia, reports.

SRC representatives also met with experts from the World Customs Organization. The latter have supported the introduction of the “blue track” customs control procedure aimed at gradually shifting the border customs control to the post-clearance phase. A number of issues related to the implementation of the “blue path” procedure, including legal regulations, were also discussed.

Notably. this important reform is a regular recommendation submitted by the Armenian Lawyers’ Association and the CSOs Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia within the framework of measures to reduce corruption risks in the SRC sector.

Introduction of the “Blue Way” customs control procedure is foreseen in the Anti-Corruption Strategy of the Republic of Armenia and measures for the implementation action plan for the period of 2015-2018, as a measure for the reduction of corruption risks in the state revenue collection sector..

Suzanna Soghomonyan, expert in the field of public revenue collecton and anti-corruption expert, notes that the proposal to introduce the “Blue Way” customs control scheme has been included in the SRC Anti-Corruption Action Plan as a result of studying best international practices. Specifically, the ASYCUDA System Selection Module, introduced in 84 countries, envisages the Blue Way procedure, which implies control over later stages by means of custom audits.

ASYCUDA system envisages four ways of risk:

– Red channel (Documentary and physical examination);

– Yellow channel (Documentary scrutiny)

– Green channel (Immediate release),

– Blue channel (Post clearance audit – PCA).

Meanwhile, Susanna Soghomonyan mentions that in order to implement the above-mentioned reform, other mechanisms have also been proposed, which also have been included in the Anti-Corruption Action Plan. Particularly, by the end of 2018, a draft legal act on amending the order of the RA Minister of Finance on June 30, 2011 “On the Establishment of Risk Assessment Methodology” will be elaborated, which will define the methodology of the “Blue Way” procedure of customs control.

Moreover, additional surveillance guarantees will also be set out in case of transferring from Green Channel or Yellow Channel procedures, to the “Red Channel”. “In other words, the non-publicizing of the selection risk indicators in some cases is risky and can provide opportunity of discredit and abuse to competent persons, when in the case of an automatic system selects “Green channel” or “Yellow channel”, the customs officer has the right to decide to change them to the “Red channel”. In addition, there is a lack of proper control over the discretion and abuse, including the process of setting up a “Red channel” on the basis of the decision of the customs body after the “Green channel” or “Yellow channel” procedure. In this regard, I have proposed to create additional surveillance guarantees to prevent discretion and abuse, including elaborating a draft legal act, envisaging in case of decision to change  the Green channel or the Yellow channel Procedure into the “Red Channel”, to in writing to provide the economic entity a written reasoned decision.” According to the expert, introduction of the “Blue channel” customs control procedure and the associated changes will create favorable business environment and reduce corruption risks in this area.