2015-2022, the scanning concession received over 100 mln euros, revealed only 136 thousand euros of violations

2023-11-07 08:29:00, Denoncim CNA

2015-2022, the scanning concession received over 100 mln euros, revealed only

From 2015 to 2022, businesses and the state budget have paid a high bill for the concession of scanning at customs, where among the most important functions was the detection of contraband.

But now, when more than 7 years have passed since the implementation of the contract, it can be seen that the concessionaire company has benefited from about 105 million euros in payments from the budget, while on the other hand, the detected violations are only 136 thousand euros or 0.1% of the value of the contract.

In a special audit on the efficiency of the scanning concession managed by S2 Albania, the Supreme State Audit Office found that from 2015 to the end of 2022 the state budget has evidenced that the value of violations detected by scanning (see the following tables) are only 14 million ALL or 136 thousand euros.

Other data from the Ministry of Finance, processed by Monitor and mentioned in the KLSH report, show that the state budget has paid the concessionaire for the period 2015-2022 with 11 billion ALL, or about 105 million euros. (see the chart at the bottom).

The Concessionary Contract "Financing, setting up and operating the service of scanning containers and other vehicles in RSH" is a concessionary project initially approved with self-financing and later restructured with budget support, carried out by the Ministry of Finance and Economy in the capacity of The Contracting Authority and the concessionaire company with a duration of 15 years.

The object of this project is to avoid the under-reporting of customs declarations for the bad effect of classifications of codes, of goods, for obtaining customs duties exactly for products that are cleared, but also to strengthen national security, to ensure borders by preventing smuggling, mainly of excise products, narcotic substances, harmful products, weapons, ammunition, etc., points out the KLSH.

This concession contract was first approved in April 2013, and was subsequently amended by law in September 2015 due to objections from businesses regarding the applied scanning fees for customs declarations, which were initially set at 39 Euros and after the revision of the contractual terms , the scanning fee is set at 5 Euros for customs declarations under 000 Euros and 22 Euros for customs declarations over 1000 Euros.

2015-2022, the scanning concession received over 100 mln euros, revealed only

The comparison of the data from the High Control of the state shows that the scanning concession was not as effective as for its primary objective, the detection of smuggling and therefore also the increase of the receipts from the customs in the state budget.

In addition to direct payments, the costs of the scanning concession are even higher, as the government pays coordinators, managers and auditors on behalf of the state to monitor the contract, duties that are not fulfilled under the FSA.

The scanning concession for all 15 years accounts for revenues of over 260 million euros.

At the end of the 15th year of this contract, the contracting authority will be given ownership of the scanner system as well as other equipment and software related to the service of scanning the placed containers.

KLSH notes that the reports of the concessionaire company and DPD do not present information on the "findings of the scanner".

"There have been no summary reports from customs branches equipped with scanners to assess the ongoing effectiveness of the RS image analysis function, including the number of scans performed for each scanner location; the origin of the reference request, eg: risk profile in Asycuda, local selection, other institution; the number of detected anomalies (with the red and yellow code); the result of the checks carried out" are stated in the findings of the KLSH.

The software updates specified in the contract are self-declared carried out by the concessionaire, but the customs authority has not performed any analysis of them, and the Project Manager at DPD does not have the appropriate technical knowledge for their evaluation, the report states.

From the audit it was found that referring to the current procedures, there is no possibility to identify errors of the scanner, in the conditions where no verification of its authenticity is carried out, since physical checks by the Customs Authority are carried out only on scans suspected of inaccuracy (yellow and red).

In the Annual Report submitted to the MFE on the progress of the implementation of the concession contract, it is found that a division is not made between cases caught illegally by physical control after the result of the scan has turned out to be suspicious (yellow or red) and cases caught from physical control initiated by third parties (law enforcement agencies) following their suspicions even though the scan image may have been identified as regular by image analysis.

KLSH has verified a lack of security in the intersection of data related to the number of scans and their results, as well as information forwarded late, which could potentially endanger the fulfillment of the purpose of providing the scanning service, since they did not create the possibility for carrying out the necessary monitoring by the Monitoring Sector at DPD, to recommend, as appropriate, the further physical control of the scanned vehicle, regardless of the classification of the image by the image analyst./ Monitor