IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Jamaica is hosting a best practices workshop with a group of customs personnel from Latin American and Caribbean, who will be undertaking a pilot project of Jamaica's Customs Automates Services Online System, with a view to implementing the system in their respective customs sectors.

The system was developed by Fiscal Services Limited (FSL), a government-owned information technology company, in response to a charge by Minister of Finance and Planning, Omar Davies, for Custom's revenue generating systems to be enhanced "to be less dependent on the central government budget."

Financial Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Colin Bullock, who was addressing the opening of the RED GEALC Customs (Gobierno Electrόnico de América Latina y el Caribe) workshop on July 24 at the Old Hope Road offices of Fiscal Services Limited, said the e-governance system, which is a computerized data management facility for smoother customs operations, became popular in the Caribbean and Latin America after it "was demonstrated to the Organisation of American States (OAS), which was very impressed with its functionality."

Commenting that "weak organisation of customs function leads to inefficiency, revenue diversion, poor customer service and very poor data capture," the Financial Secretary highlighted that the system "has enabled the Jamaica Customs Department to achieve increased levels of efficiency, improved service delivery to the public, safeguard against losses and provide increased revenue to the government."

The system provides the global trading community with an Internet interface with Jamaica Customs, which would allow relevant stakeholders to query the status of transactions, while having access to the latest updates, information and services.

OAS Country Representative, Dr. Joan Neil, in her address at yesterday's opening session, said that, "this initiative uses the best practices approach in the promotion of regional knowledge sharing and exchange of proven e-government applications among Caribbean nations."

Speaking further, she said it was imperative that small, export-import driven economies in the western hemisphere, in a time of global change, "find ways of ensuring that our revenue base is not diminished appreciably particularly if there are systems and practices that we can put in place to ensure that there is minimal hemorrhaging from the income stream."

It was upon this premise, Dr. Neil said, that the OAS, in collaboration with the government of Jamaica and with support from the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA), the World Bank, the Development Gateway and United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), decided to host a three-day workshop to replicate the Jamaican context and apply it to the wider Caribbean.

Quelle/Source: Government of Jamaica, Jamaica Information Service, 26.07.2006