The Dominican Association of Customs Brokers (ADAA) has urged the Customs Department to audit its computerized system. The association says an audit of all shipping documents at Customs will confirm the allegations of corruption in the department. "The existence of ghost customs brokers and their ties to Customs Department officers and employees is easy to prove," says ADAA. "They only have to generate the stats of the customs declarations for the past seven months and determine the customs agents who carried out the dispatches or entry of merchandise and what the total duties paid were. This will also reveal who the beneficiaries and privileged parties were," says ADAA. ADAA says that only the political will is needed to prevent corruption. It says an order is needed so the computer systems automatically reject all orders where a merchandise transaction violates the established norms. ADAA also says the department is exaggerating when they say they have implemented a training program to prepare personnel in Customs Law and the changes in the new GATT agreements, Caricom and the Central American Free Trade Agreements.
