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Port ‘loses time, money’ in reboot of Customs software

by Marlon Madden
6 min read
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The Bridgetown Port is counting its losses from waivered fees for shipments delayed during its transition from ASYCUDA ++ to the ASYCUDA World system, implemented in early September.

However, any ongoing delays in the clearing of items at the Bridgetown Port is not as a result of the ASYCUDA World system, authorities have said.

According to chairman of the port Senator Lisa Cummins “Between September 9 and November 17, the port in foregone storage revenue, saw a loss of $1.9 million in waivers associated with storage charges, and that is just the revenue loss, and that has nothing to do at all with the efficiency loss, it has nothing to do with the time lost,” said Cummins. She said Government stands by the decision to give the waiver on storage charges during the transition period.

Within days of being implemented, the business sector complained about delays associated with the new software. There were also general complaints about the time it was taking to clear items from the Port.

Government did admit that there were some teething challenges but gave the assurance that the problems would be addressed before the busy Christmas period.

Cummins said those initial challenges were addressed and suggested that any slowdown in the clearing of items at this point was due to several factors from a number of those who have to interact with the system.

“We are quite comfortable that the process is advancing quite significantly,” said Cummins.

“The port is an entire value chain. We are talking about private sector operators who put in the primary data into the system who are not from the port. We are talking about the brokers who clear the documents from the port, the shippers who handle manifests and bills of lading, the Customs Department that deals with clearances, animal, health, plant, quarantine. Those are all agencies within the Port,” she explained.

She pointed out that in some cases the port would be in possession of hundreds of containers, many of which still did not have entries put into the system in order for the port agencies to have them available for clearance and processing.

“So that is not a port challenge, insisted Cummins.

Stressing that there was no benefit to the port in storing containers, she said officials have been urging importers to contact their brokers because there has been a transition in their own systems internally that has not allowed them to be tracking containers that are available for clearance.

“We have some containers that are 119 days, some that are 100 days and we have some people with over 100 containers. Some of those are special cases. Some of those are issues that are involved in customs adjudication processes based on tariff challenges.

“There are many different reasons why that could be the case but in all instances the port has been accommodating and willing to work with the various stakeholders to address the challenges and to get the containers, where they are within our purview, out of the port,” she explained.

Stating that the new software was intolerant of errors and that information had to be entered the same way at each point, officials explained that another area of delay was due to incorrect information being entered into the system making it impossible for the process to continue.

“We have people for example, who were rounding off weights on containers to the nearest whole number, but the system doesn’t allow for that because every other user that goes in there has the initial primary data . . . So those are some of the challenges,” said Cummins.

Meanwhile, Minister of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy Kirk Humphrey pointed out that a “breakdown of the information” showed that the Customs Department or Barbados Port Inc. were not the only ones to share the blame.

Kirk Humphrey

“Customs has to improve. Port Health, quarantine, animal and plant all have to improve as Government, and we know that. We have been honest about that and laid it on the table . . . But a, the private sector has to improve and when a container is there, clear the container. If you have to talk to your importer to get the documents right then speak to your importer,” he said.

Humphrey said he has been having weekly meetings with private sector groups, importers and brokers to address their concerns as it relates to the clearing of containers at the port.

Further putting the delays into perspective, Humphrey told journalists that there were currently some 577 containers at the port, of which just over 400 were not yet released and more than 300 of those not released have not yet been entered into the system.

“It is up to the brokers, importers and for whatever reason they have not been entered. The point of the matter is that it is not a port issue, and that there are other issues. Obviously some might be other government departments, the documents were incorrect. When the broker started to handle them it might have been late in the process, but the reality is that the containers stuck in the port are not necessarily as a result of anything happening in the port,” he explained.

The officials, who were speaking on the sidelines of the launch of a mentoring programme at the Bridgetown Port, said they are expecting the number of barrels and other personal effects coming through the Port this month to significantly surpass the usual 5,000 pieces.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb

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