Customs revenues account for almost a third of Central Africa’s state budget, but technical and financial partners regularly point to organizational problems and corruption. A customs agreement was signed on May 7 between the Russian Economic Commission and the Ministry of Finance, but it continues to provoke debate. Recent controversy, the video of a UN mission car loaded by Russian partners. The director of customs agreed to respond to RFI.
They are about ten technical advisors. They help with the relocation of customs officials in the territory, but also with the application of the texts, explains the Director-General for Customs and Indirect Rights (DGDDI), Frédéric-Théodore Inamo: “They only regulate the behavior of economic operators by following normal procedures. To them, they are there to say: But does the text give it? Did not the text prescribe this? Do the Russians help customs? Yes, it helps us. ”
Following the signing of this agreement, some political commentators feared that some of these tariffs would go to Russian partners: “Never, never. I can reassure you, confirms the head of customs for the Central African Republic. In the Memorandum of Understanding, although it is being revised, the Prime Minister requested an evaluation meeting every evening to see the impact of the mission on customs. income. “
A very shared video was also controversial. We see partners for the Russian mission looking for a vehicle from the UN mission. “We do not blame those responsible for Minusca, but the drivers. When they arrive with the Minusca vehicles, they arrange for the economic operators to take the surplus from the containers and put them under a tarpaulin to take it to Bangui. The Russians, when they check and find the goods that the drivers hide, it is still a plus, Frédéric-Théodore Inamo explains.
In its press briefing last week, Minusca warned of persistent violations of the status of the contract. Among these violations, the UN mission points to systematic blockades of its convoys. Blockades by the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC), since the counter-offensive, paralyzed the main supply corridor during the first quarter. But the director of customs ensures that the delay with customs duties has already been compensated.
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