BPA reveal a proposal to prevent corruption

Baghdad - INA

the Border Ports Authority revealed today, Thursday that it had submitted a proposal to the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers to attract importers, confirming a plan to prevent corruption and bribery.

The head of the authority, Omar al-Waili, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA): “The border outlets include 15 operating departments, each of these departments contracts with companies and sets controls and wages to collect money, and in this case the importer spends high sums of money when entering these goods, and thus our outlets become "The federal border is expelling, compared to other ports that are attractive, because it contains facilities and reduces these fees."

He explained that "the commission submitted a proposal to the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, and we hope to present it in the Council of Ministers, to obtain a decision that is attractive to importers and works to increase revenues in our federal outlets."

He indicated that a deliberate plan had been developed to prevent corruption and bribery practiced at the border crossings, stressing the initiation of the establishment of an electronic platform whose main goal is to tighten control over documents, not to forge them, to correct their issuance, as well as to download quantities, and to determine the true description of the goods.

He explained, "Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi held a series of meetings with the commission and a study was presented that included 10 paragraphs, foremost of which is providing protection to all border outlets to prevent entry of any person who is not legally authorized, and to provide protection and a safe environment for workers, in order to work according to the controls without pressure ".

He added that "the commission made another proposal to change workers, and in fact the existing cadres were changed, and the rotation was conducted at all border outlets," noting that "these measures contributed to achieving important revenues."

He noted, "There is no comparison in the first period of 2020 with the year 2019 because the ports were closed due to the Corona pandemic, and zero customs duties, but the second half of the year 2020 witnessed a noticeable increase in revenues when compared to the second half of 2019."

He pointed out that "there are many measures taken by the Border Ports Authority, in cooperation with the Customs, the Tax Authority, and the security services present to advance this file."