A survey aimed at assessing the perception of Customs integrity by Customs officers as well as private sector stakeholders has been conducted in 10 countries taking part in the Norad-funded WCO Anti-Corruption and Integrity Promotion (A-CIP) Programme for Customs, namely Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Tunisia and Tanzania.

The questions were developed in collaboration with Ipsos and are structured around the ten key factors of the Revised Arusha Declaration.  The survey was conducted in the 10 participating countries between January and February 2020 by Ernst & Young (EY), via specially programmed and encrypted mobile survey station tablets. In total, 2,793 private sector representatives and 3,019 Customs officials were surveyed.

The survey provides insights into the perceived success rates of Customs administrations in promoting integrity and combating corruption, and will therefore assist participating Customs administrations to measure their performance in these areas.

Although the WCO Secretariat cannot publish the full results of the survey, it is worth noting that, across the countries surveyed, both Customs officers and private sector stakeholders generally feel that achieving a high level of integrity is a priority within their respective administrations.  Additionally, more than half the private sector stakeholders surveyed do not comply with the rules set by administrations because they consider these rules to be overly complex.

The WCO will be incorporating lessons learned from this first iteration of the survey to the questionnaire and methodological guidelines that will be made available to all WCO Members following review by the Integrity Sub-Committee (ISC) next year.

For further details, please contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.