The Customs and Excise Department of Hong Kong has its root in the Preventive Service established on September 17, 1909. The then small band of Revenue Officers has evolved dramatically to a major, multi-faceted enforcement department of some 5 200 staff to meet the demands of a metropolitan city like Hong Kong. To mark its 90th anniversary, the department has organised a series of activities, including a departmental review, a dinner banquet, and a commemorative publication.
The Review will be held in the Customs and Excise Training School on September 4. It is a grandeur and spectacular occasion on which we will have the honour of having the Chief Executive Mr Tung Chee Hwa inspected the parade. More than 250 members from both the Service and the Trade Controls Branch forming nine squads including the guards of honour will form the parade procession. The parade commander and deputy parade commander are Superintendent Wong Ching-lim and Assistant Superintendent Kwok Ngan-ping (Ms) respectively. A commemorative publication will also be presented to guests attending the review.
While extending his congratulations in his message to the commemorative publication, the Chief Executive also commended all staff of the department for our accomplishments so far and urged our continuing excellence in rising up to the new challenges in the new millennium. He is confident that we shall be able to maintain a fine balance between enforcement and trade facilitation in ensuring that Hong Kong will remain one of the best places in the world to do business.
A dinner banquet organised by the Customs & Excise Sports and Recreation Club will be held on September 17 at Ocean Palace Restaurant and Night Club, Tsim Sha Tsui to celebrate the occasion. There will be a lot of fun and prizes awaiting the participants. Members of the department and their families are encouraged to attend.
Congratulations to the following officers who have been awarded outstanding honours on July 1, 1999. Assistant Commissioner Vincent Poon Yeung-kwong is awarded the Hong Kong Customs & Excise Medal for Distinguished Service; Assistant Commissioner Lawrence Wong Sau-pui, Senior Superintendent Vincent Wai Chi-hung (retired); Chief Customs Officers Lee Kwok-choy; Chu Ching-wan (retired); and Tse Kwok-yin (retired) are awarded the Customs & Excise Medal for Meritorious Service. Winners of The Ombudsman Award 1999 are Assistant Commissioner Lawrence Wong Sau-pui; Assistant Superintendent Ko Tak-yue; Senior Customs Officer Lo Wai-ming and Customs Officer Tsang Wan-yiu. The awards are conferred to the officers in recognition of their fairness, impartiality and efficiency in the performance of their duties and their exemplary and praiseworthy efforts over a sustained period of time.
On June 30, Mrs Maggie Kwok, Chief Superintendent of the Airport Command, received the Best Training Programme Prize in this year's. Best Practices in Human Resource Development Scheme organised by the Civil Service Training and Development Institute (CSTDI). The winning programme was the Command's "Customer Service Training Programme." As early as November 1997, the Airport Command had formed a "Facilitation Steering Committee" to formulate policy, direction and operational strategies to promote facilitation and customer service. Last year between February and March, it joined the CSTDI to run a "Customer Service Workshop" to instill knowledge, skills and new inspiration on customs service to all officers of the Air Passenger Division. Between September to November 1998, a "Distinguished Customer Service Awards for Baggage Examination Counter Officers" Competition was launched. By interviewing 3 800 in-bound passengers who had just passed through customs clearance, eight counter officers and one team were selected as winners.
In pursuance of the Agreed Minute signed between Hong Kong and the US on Strategic Trade Controls in 1997, a Hong Kong delegation, comprising officers of Trade and Industry Bureau, Trade Department and Customs and Excise Department which was represented by Andrew Wong, Head of Trade Controls (HTC), attended the fourth inter-agency meeting in Washington DC between July 7 and 8 this year. In the two-day discussion with representatives from US Departments of Commerce, State Defense, Customs and Justice, the Hong Kong team impressed upon the different agencies the very firm commitments Hong Kong had in upholding a stringent and comprehensive trade control system. The opportunity was also taken to clarify issues, correct misconceptions and refute allegations arising from the Cox Report. The delegation also met a number of media representatives, congressional staffers and industry representatives to reinforce our commitment and canvass support of our control system from different sectors of the US community outside its Administration. Prior to the inter-agency meeting, HTC and the Deputy and Assistant Directors-General of Trade called on Deputy Commissioner of the US Customs, Sam Banks, and his team on July 6. Banks was clearly supportive and appreciative of efforts made by Hong Kong in the areas of strategic trade control and in combating illegal transhipment of textiles.
The Commissioner hosted cocktail receptions on June 29 and July 30 respectively to bid farewell to Mr. Patrick H. Sheridan, Senior Customs Representative of US Customs Service and Mr. Robert Jones, Narcotics Attaché of the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
Mr Trevor Van Dam, Australian Customs Service Regional Director for the State of Queensland, visited the department in May. Mr Van Dam is responsible for management control of customs and immigration matters in Queensland. He visited the Airport Command, Ship Search and Cargo Command, Customs Intelligence and Liaison Bureau and Customs Drug Investigation Bureau. Before leaving, he sincerely praised the professionalism and efficiency of our officers.
The Royal Thai Consulate General and the Customs and Excise Department have jointly organised a series of Basic Thai Language Course for Customs officers. The course is designed to enhance the communication skills of our officers in dealing with Thai passengers and to avoid misunderstanding during Customs clearance. At the opening ceremony on June 28 at the Airport Command, Deputy Commissioner Raymond Li presented a commemorative plate to Mr. Rathakit Manathat, the Consul-General of Royal Thai Consulate General of Hong Kong, in appreciation of his assistance.
On June 3 & 4 this year, the Trade Licensing Investigation Bureau organised a two day course on Identification of Strategic Commodities. The objective of the course was to enhance officers* ability to identify strategic commodities including ordnance, telecommunication equipment, missiles, artillery gun parts, chemical weapons precursors and biological agents. Altogether 16 Assistant Superintendents / Senior Inspectors and eight Senior Trade Controls Officers attended the course. We were pleased to have the Chief of the Office of Army Liaison Administration of the US Consulate General, a Police Bomb Disposal Officer, a Senior Chemist, a Senior Telecommunications Engineer and a lecturer of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as our guest speakers. In view of the good response, similar training programmes will be organised towards the end of this year.
April 23, 1999 was a "Good Friday" for Mr Fritz Schoder, Head of the European Commission (EU) delegation and his colleagues, Mr Sidney Overton from the Anti-fraud Co-ordination Unit (UCLAF) of the EU, Mr Jan Klei from the Dutch Customs and Ms Schmautz Bestmann from the German Customs. They had just finished their one week's hard work in Hong Kong in connection with their investigations into a large number of shipments of footwear which had entered the EU from Hong Kong under false Generalised System of Preference Certificates issued by some Asian countries. In the debriefing session held at the office of the Trade Investigation Bureau, Mr Overton, coordinator of the EU delegation, thanked our department for the assistance that led to the successful conclusion of their specific enquiries in Hong Kong.
Anti-piracy has always been high on the agenda of the Government, and nowhere is this truer than on Customs & Excise Department where a 185-strong Special Task Force has been set up since June 28 to tackle the problem. The task force is composed of a Superintendent, two Assistant Superintendents, four Senior Inspectors, two Inspectors, and over 170 Customs Officer Grade and Trade Controls Officers. It comes under the direct command of Assistant Commissioner (Control and Intellectual Property) and is charged with a mission to combat the sale of pirated optical discs at retail level, and to suppress the illicit sale of contraband cigarettes and diesel oil. From June 30 to July 30, a total of 1 125 552 pirated discs worth $24 million have been seized and 302 persons arrested. The number of retail outlets for pirated goods has been reduced significantly.
The new Drug Detector Dog / Dog Handler Training Programme has commenced since May 31, 1999. Twelve handler trainees (nine male and three female Customs Officers) and 12 candidate dogs (11 from UK and one donated by the Correctional Services Department) participate in the programme. The purposes of the 18-week Training Programme are to develop dogs' detection skill; handlers' handling technique and to enhance communication between dogs and handlers. Apart from the Dog Unit Base at the River Trade Terminal, candidate dogs and handlers receive in-depth training at the Perowne Barrack and the Police Dog Unit at Queen's Hill Camp in Fanling. The programme includes environmental training, obedience training and scent association exercises. Opening ceremony was inaugurated by the Commissioner on June 9, at the Customs Building at River Trade Terminal. In his speech, the Commissioner reviewed the development of the Department's Dog Unit. The Unit, started with one dog in 1974, expands to become a 16-dog force now, is expecting an extra 10 next year, plays a more important role in the Service's drug detection operation. Three woman Customs Officers Lee Suk-ling, Maggie; Luk Yin-ling, Elaine and Wu Kit-sze, Kitty successfully outrivaled 13 competitors to become dog handler trainees (at present there are four dog handlers in the Service and they are all men). As the job nature of a dog handler demands great energy and endurance, what motivates drive the three to put themselves into such a man-dominant world? Maggie grinned and said, "Actually I have three Scottish Terrier and I think 'I like dog' is the only reason." Same reason as to Maggie, Kitty also has two loyal dogs and that's why she is so experienced in dog rearing. Elaine has no dog. But judging from her handling technique, you could never tell that she is totally inexperienced. Simultaneously, they recognise dog handling is not an easy job but promise they will do their best.
The introduction of the EDI service is a major step forward in the Government's efforts to provide an efficient and user-friendly infrastructure and environment for business in Hong Kong and to increase Hong Kong's competitiveness in the international trade. The Service is provided by Tradelink Electronic Commerce Ltd., a joint venture between the Government and major Hong Kong companies formed for providing services to the community for lodging trade-related documents to the Government by electronic means. With effect from April 1, 1997 importers and exporters can lodge import / export declarations with the Department by using the EDI service. They can transmit their electronic import / export declarations to the Government's computer system without having the need to lodge their declarations at the collection offices. The Government is going to make electronic means the only acceptable method for the lodgment of import / export declarations from April 2000. By then, all the existing Government facilities for receiving paper declarations will be withdrawn and the Customs' collection centres will be closed. After introduction of the EDI system for lodgment of import / export declarations, the Finance Committee has recently approved the funding request for development of the EDI system to receive and process Dutiable Commodities Permits (DCP) and to cover the submission of cargo manifests. Under the EDI system for Dutiable Commodities Permits (EDI DCP System), traders can file DCP applications and settle the payment of duty electronically to the department. The System will enable the department to shorten the processing time of DCPs from two days to half a day. Under the EDI system for cargo manifests (EMAN System), a community-wide network infrastructure will be set up to receive manifest electronically from cargo carriers. As only one set of cargo manifest needs to be lodged with the Government electronically, the current practice of delivering physically three sets of paper manifest at different times to the Census and Statistics Department, Trade Department and our department can be dispensed with. It is expected that the two systems will be fully implemented in August and December 2001 respectively. Impact on Staff Upon the discontinuance of the Diskette Submission Scheme on January 1, 1998, one Assistant Clerical Officer post under the establishment of the Kowloon Collection Office was deleted. With the withdrawal of postal lodgement for import / export declarations, 16 posts including one Clerical Officer, nine Assistant Clerical Officer and six Clerical Assistant in the Postal Remittance Unit (PRU) were deleted on April 1, 1999. Six of the affected staff in the PRU were re-deployed to fill existing vacancies elsewhere in the department. The remaining ten officers were returned to the General Grades Office for re-posting to other departments. Another eight posts comprising one Clerical Officer, four Assistant Clerical Officer and three Clerical Assistant under the establishment of the PRU were deleted on August 1, 1999. Upon the full implementation of the EDI System in April 2000, 43 posts in the Kowloon Collection Office and 19 posts in the Hong Kong Collection Office in the general and common grades will be deleted on October 1,1999 and April 1, 2000 respectively. It is envisaged that a further deletion of 26 general and common grades posts will be effected on March 1, 2002 when the EDI DCP System and EMAN System are fully implemented. Implementation of the various EDI exercises has considerable impact on the establishment of the general and common grades staff in the department. The Officer of Departmental Administration has been liaising closely with the General Grades Office to work out re-deployment arrangements for the staff affected.
In May 1999, a new mobile X-ray van, valued at $3 million, joined the Ship Search and Cargo Command and started to take up the responsibility of cargo examination.
The new van has more advanced features such as CCTV, intercom system, motorised raising / lowering conveyor belt and folding canopy, etc. The X-ray checker installed in the van is capable of enlarging the image by 16 times.
The Phase II of Air Cargo Clearance System (ACCS) was successfully implemented in the small hours on July 5, 1999. It is equipped with more powerful machines and software. An intelligence module is incorporated into the system whereby the targeting of high-risk consignments is made fully automated. The system also provides importer matching for consignments from high-risk countries. By August 1999, a Disaster Recovery (DR) Center has commenced operation, ensuring speedy recovery of service to the industry even if the Production Computer Room fails due to major disasters, such as fire, terrorist attack...etc. By October 1999, an End-User-Computing-Center will be ready for Customs officers at the airport to make enquiries to the production data easily without interfering the on-line efficiency. The ACCS has much acclaim from the air cargo operators. We are linked up directly with all six cargo operators in the airport via the system. As a result, we have been able to speed up cargo clearance by more than two hours. More than 50 per cent of the incoming flights have now managed to provide electronic cargo data to Customs prior to flight arrival and a majority of them are thus able to receive Customs instructions for cargo clearance before the planes actually touch down in the airport.
Which of the following products presents a more substantial degree of hazard to a user, a knife or a wooden cot? We all know that the sharp edge of a knife can and will therefore use the knife carefully; this reduces the potential hazard in the use of the knife. However, relatively fewer parents recognise that a wooden cot can kill if the distance between two bars is longer than 65 mm, hence a higher degree of hazard. There is one important factor that underlies the assessment of the hazard presented by these products - hazard recognition. Hong Kong Customs has adopted the "Nomograph" developed by the New Zealand Ministry of Consumer Affairs in assessing product hazard. "Hazard Recognition" as mentioned above is one of the four factors, the other three are "Maximum Potential Injury", "Probability of Hazard Occurrence" and "Availability of Product". The assessment skill will facilitate the prioritisation of work, determination of the scope of an investigation and the consideration of legal and administrative actions.
Over 67 per cent of respondents to our opinion survey were in favour of reading news concerning departmental developments. Personnel news and features are also considered interesting items, according to the survey. The opinion survey, conducted by the Customs Editorial Board in the last quarter, attracted a total of 571 respondents. Most encouraging is one of the findings that more than 93 per cent of respondents would like to continue reading Customs News. Some readers, in their letters to the Editor, said Customs News, an excellent publication, had been giving their chances of keeping in touch with all aspects of Customs activities. The Editorial Board would like to thank those who have responded to the survey, as their views or opinions are vital for the further improvement in the publication of the newsletter.
Between June 14 and 18, I had the honour to participate in the Asian Regional Anti-Money Laundering Seminar organised by the United States Customs Service in Las Vegas, USA. The training programme was aimed at familiarising the law enforcement officials with money laundering methods, as well as investigation techniques in tracing the flow of funds derived from international criminal activities. The overall objective of the seminar was to foster closer relationships among the law enforcement agencies in Asian Pacific Region and the US Customs Service.
The Graduation Ceremony for 22 members of the 65th Induction Course for Assistant Trade Controls Officers was held on 5 August. The Acting Commissioner, Raymond LI, JP, attended the Graduation Ceremony as an honourable guest.
Ten Probationary Inspectors and 65 Probationary Customs Officers joined the Department in May and July 1999 respectively.
Miss Leung Pik-kwan EO (P)2, Miss Tsang Man-che, Eva EO (G)2 & Miss Leung Yee-ping AO (SM) joined the department between April and June 1999.
Assistant Superintendent Tam Wai-lun was promoted to Superintendent on June 30, 1999.
Thirty Inspectors were promoted to Senior Inspectors on June 21, 1999.
One Senior Customs Officer and six Customs Officers were successful in the Special Appointment Scheme and were appointed as Probationary Inspectors on May 3, 1999.
Three Senior Trade Controls Officers were promoted to Chief Trade Controls Officers on June 7, 1999.
The following officers proceeded on pre-retirement leave between May and July 1999:
| Senior Superintendent | Wai Chi-hung |
|---|---|
| Chief Customs Officer | Chu Ching-wan |
| Chief Customs Officer | Lee Chi-keung |
| Chief Customs Officer | Yip Yiu-hoi |
| Senior Customs Officer | Li Cham-tin |
| Senior Customs Officer | Yun Yau-hei |