PHOTO: Saa Samoi, LRA Customs Commissioner
By William Selmah, wselmah@gmail.com
The Commissioner of Customs at the Liberia Revenue Authority Saa Samoi says recent reform in customs has put the agency in better position to be able to support the government fiscally.
Mr. Samoi named some of the dividends of the reform as the success they have attained in alternating their procedures, resulting into raising the country’s revenue base from at least 20 million to almost 200 million over the last few years.
He was speaking Wednesday, November 25, 2020 when the Department of Customs of the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) signed an MOU with the Liberia National Police to train 360 customs officers at the Police Training Academy in Paynesville.
Samoi said “collaboration with the security sector is very key and I must admit in this public forum that we have received the utmost support; collaborating support. They were actively engaged in the security prior to the civil crisis”.
The Customs Commissioner said customs is the only agency in the joint security that has multiple functions. The agency, he noted has huge fiscal responsibility, as 40% of government’s revenue is dependent on customs.
“On the environmental side we proxy for the Environmental Protection Agency at borders in terms of border enforcement against environmental depleting substances. It’s about time now that we focus on the second aspect which is border security”, Samoi explained.
That urge, he noted is also being heralded by their parent organization – the World Customs Organization (WCO) at the global level.
Samoi also added that collaboration has taken place between the WCO and Interpol in the face of the growing wave of terrorism across the world, saying the global body has been supportive of their security program which has already been jumpstarted.
“Over the last one year we have received support – approximately 100,000 dollars in terms of equipment, spectrometers, testers used to test precursor chemicals used to produce improvised explosive devices, he pointed out at the signing of the MOU with the police.
Speaking earlier was LNP Inspector General Patrick Sudue who said the training exercise will be a shared expertise that will benefit both institutions leading to the closing loopholes at border points.
“I’m gratified in the sense that it would train our officers and the dividend will be shown by the increment in our budget and financial revenue intake”.
Inspector-General Sudue underscored the need for qualified, trained and professional persons to work with the LRA as means of minimizing losses incurred in revenue generation at border posts.
He believes the training will ensure increment in the country’s revenue base because having more qualified persons working with the entity would lead to improvement in revenue collection.