Australia will move to crack down on corruption and organised crime infiltrating its borders, with a restructure of the Customs service.
Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare will on Wednesday announce a raft of reforms including job rotations, undercover federal police officers and boosted waterfront patrols.
‘Staying in the one job too long is a problem that was identified,’ Mr Clare told Fairfax of the findings of a Customs Reform Board investigation.
‘This change will apply to all Customs officers now, with different time periods depending on the role they perform.’
The reforms will be linked to passenger movements and cargo management, with proposals including: a fully electronic data reporting system for all goods; additional ‘smart gates’ at airports to process arriving travellers; and a feasibility study for automating the airport departure process for passengers.
Operational changes could include banning the use of mobile phones by border officers in restricted areas, and not allowing them to have second jobs.
The changes have been partly inspired by the recent identification of corrupt officials at Sydney Airport.
Four customs officers and one Australian Quarantine Inspection Service official have been arrested in recent months for having alleged links to drug traffickers.
With Customs predicting air cargo in Australia to increase by nearly 65 million consignments over the next five years, along with a 24 per cent increase in international passengers over the same period, Mr Clare admitted there was a need to boost the Customs budget. Ahead of releasing the reform board’s findings, Mr Clare said the problem was ‘bigger than just the corruption’ and required major structural and cultural reform.
‘What this report shows is the current model is not going to be good enough in the future,’ he told ABC Radio.
The minister said the service’s operational structure, training systems and equipment all needed reform.
He acknowledged the presence of organised crime and corruption in the service.
‘We’ve seen evidence of officers who have been susceptible to corruption, who’ve stood over managers, manipulated managers, in order to get drugs or pre-cursors into the country and when you get evidence of that, that’s serious enough to act.’
Source: skynews