INDIVIDUALS AND COMPANIES who complain about the Customs Department find themselves blacklisted by customs officers.
The damning accusation was found in the Barbados Customs Assessment Trade Results (CAT-R) prepared for Customs in November 2011 by an international team.
The report which scored Customs poorly, said the department did not “have a systematic and formal mechanism for capturing complaints, investigating them and taking corrective actions”.
It added: “In interviews with private sector officials, one of the most frequently repeated complaint to the [Customs Assessment] evaluators was that companies that complain to the customs office are “blacklisted” by the customs officers and hence external trade operators are unwilling/reluctant to present their complaints to the management team of the Customs Office, and as a result important issues are never resolved.” (GE)
Please read the full story in today’s Sunday Sun, or in the eNATION edition.
