Hiring of pre-shipment inspector bucked

Newly-installed Customs Commissioner Antonio Bernardo is not too keen on hiring another pre-shipment inspector.

Bernardo said he would be more interested in hiring a firm that would help the Bureau of Customs in the area of valuation and X-ray monitoring.

In a brief interview with reporters, Bernardo said he is not interested in hiring a pre-shipment inspector for the entire pre-shipment inspection activity.

Instead, Bernardo said, he would be more amenable to hiring a firm "not as a whole, but just for aspects of pre-shipment activity."

At the moment, though, Bernardo said, the BOC is still busy sorting out its problem with the Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) which was the country’s pre-shipment inspector for 12 years.

The Philippine government and SGS are still trying to work out the unpaid fees of SGS amounting to about P6 billion for the period October 1998 to March 2000.

In Swiss Francs, the amount is around 206 million. Of that amount, only 104 million Swiss Francs is being acknowledged by the Philippines. The balance of 102 Swiss Francs is still being questioned and verified by the Philippine government.

According to Bernardo, even the uncontested amount still cannot be paid by the Philippine Government because Congress has not appropriated any payment under the budget.

Only Congress has the power to appropriate funds in the budget. SGS helped the Philippines conduct pre-shipment inspections in the port of shipments abroad, thus, supposedly minimizing undervaluation and technical smuggling. – Marianne Go