Customs officers, particularly documentary and physical exam inspectors, are often criticised for the decisions they make, which, in most cases, result in delays and additional costs.
Understandably, traders question the knowledge and expertise of these officers, often accusing them of not understanding the impact their decisions have on business, particularly the financial repercussions.
The reason for frustration is simple: compliant traders suffer the same financial loss as those who are non-compliant.
So, how customs officers are trained, by whom and for how long then become obvious questions, and rightly so.
Until very recently, the private sector had very limited access to information in this regard, but this is no longer the case as trade has been provided with detailed insight into the cadet training programme.
Within its People Capability and Career Management Framework, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) has developed a structured approach to build capacity, which includes a learning path that cadets will be required to follow.
Key to this framework are four pillars of competence – depth of knowledge, breadth of services, performance and behaviour of attributes. Competencies across all four pillars must be met in each of five levels for a cadet to progress to the next level.
In terms of career progression, once accepted into the cadet programme, successful candidates will progress to Levels One to Three, then to advanced and mastery, being Levels Four and Five and, finally, specialisation.
This progression is supported by managers, functional specialists, masters in customs graduates and WCO (World Customs Organization) accredited specialists, subject matter experts and a ‘community of elders’ who make themselves available for mentoring, coaching and on-the-job training.
The basic introduction to Level One includes Service Manager, Supply Chain Manager, (SSM) Physical Inspector, SSM RLA (Recruitment, Licensing and Accreditation), manual case creation, permit systems, RCG (Recruitment, Conveyances and Goods), e-learning and Word Basic.
The technical training segment of Level One covers 39 modules and covers, to name only a few, an introduction to basic calculations, customs legislation, the harmonised system, duty calculations, customs valuation, rules of origin, rebates, the P&R list, AEO (Authorised Economic Operator), cargo inspections, illicit trade awareness, Value-Added Tax and auditing principles.
Human related skills/behavioural and future skills contain a further 13 modules, and other skills/workplace experience learning contains eight modules.
As previously indicated, there are five levels of career progression and, although the cadet programme has been reduced from 24 to 12 months, an officer must spend a minimum of 18 months at Level One, two years at Level Two and three years at Level Three, with the entire journey from Levels One to Five taking nothing less than 10 years, with a pass rate maintained at 80% throughout.
So far, 114 matriculants have successfully completed the cadet programme while approximately 615 existing customs officers are registered for further training.
Of significant interest is Sars’ engagement with the University of KwaZulu-Natal about prior learning recognition and the development of a customs degree. The almost complete destruction of Sars from within during the previous administration of Jacob Zuma is well documented.
However, based on the information that has been made available, the future of Sars looks extremely positive. This may not be evident daily, but education takes time and patience is required to achieve the end result – well-trained and professional customs officers.
