Under the WCO-EAC CREATe Project funded by the Swedish Government, the World Customs Organization mounted a mission in Burundi from 25 to 29 July 2016 at Roca Golf Hotel, Bujumbura. The objective of the mission was to assess the capacity of the administration to implement effectively the East African Community (EAC) Authorised Economic Operators (AEO) Programme. Mr Richard Chopra, Director of the WCO-Sweden Programme and Mr Axel Nalbone, WCO Accredited Expert on Post Clearance Audit (PCA) facilitated the Workshop. The Workshop was attended by representatives from various stakeholders implicated in the supply chain including the public and the private sector such as the Customs, the national and regional AEOs, the Bureau of standards, the immigration, Interpol, clearing and forwarding agents’ associations among others. In his opening remarks, Mr Gérard SABAMAHORO, the Commissioner for Customs and Excise on behalf of the Commissioner General thanked the WCO for the usual technical assistance it’s providing to his administration and requested that the WCO would first assist in the risk mapping and then make a capacity building in the areas of risk management and risk analysis.
During the Workshop, the two WCO experts through consultations with different stakeholders on the Programme made an in-depth assessment of the requirements for the successful implementation of the Programme especially the AEO programme management, the risk management, the PCA, the Human resources management and training, and the Customs to Business Partnership.
The diagnostic mission conducted in Burundi on the regional AEO programme helped to identify the strengths and weaknesses for the administration to successfully run out the WCO-EAC CREATe Project. Some of the major identified weaknesses were the lack of a specialized unit dedicated to the AEOs, the lack of an AEO logo on AEO declarations, the lack of a risk management strategy and the human resources strategy among others.
The mission concluded by drafting the work plan to address the identified gaps by March 2018 and support the Revenue Authority in its Customs modernisation programme.