Following the National Mercator Plan for Sudan, designed to provide multi-year, interactive and results-oriented capacity building support to enable effective implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), the WCO facilitated a workshop to strengthen Sudan Customs capacities on post-clearance audit (PCA). The workshop was held in Khartoum, Sudan from 11 to 15 February 2018, and was delivered in the framework of the HMRC-WCO-UNCTAD Programme, financially supported by the Government of the United Kingdom through Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

In total, 20 Sudan Customs officials from PCA and other Customs directorates and departments, including Port Sudan, Khartoum airport, Sub dry port containers, Finance, Risk management, Policies and Procedures, Training benefited from participating in the workshop. The participants were introduced to the WCO PCA concept of measuring and improving compliance, and gained an increased understanding of the importance of PCA as an integrated part of the Customs risk management strategy and processes, in order to increase the efficiency of controls and promote trade facilitation.

The workshop also provided an opportunity for participants to practically implement PCA using systems based audit approach focusing on targeting methodologies, data and information gathering methods. Through role-play and case study examples, participants were able to practice interview techniques to better understand auditable business processes and systems used by large multinationals.

Participants displayed enthusiasm to pilot PCA techniques in line with WCO Guidelines and international best practices. The WCO looks forward to continuing its collaboration with Sudan Customs in line with the tailor-made track of the Mercator Programme.