Under the auspices of the WCO/JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) Joint Project, representatives from Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) and Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) visited Mauritius Revenue Authority (MRA) from 23 to 26 October 2018 for a  benchmarking study on Risk Management. The study focused on  how  to effectively  use a variety of data and systems available within Customs  for enhancing risk management and post-clearance audit (PCA).  This is  part of the efforts being made by RRA and URA to further enhance their risk management functions under the Trade Facilitation and Border Control Project in East Africa, that is jointly supported by the WCO and JICA.  

This benchmarking visit was a result of recommendations of the WCO and JICA  joint risk management fact-finding missions conducted earlier this year and subsequent requests by the two Revenue Authorities.  During the earlier visit, the team of experts had intensive discussions with two Revenue Authorities and the need to further enhance Risk Management functions through systematic targeting and data analysis to ensure revenue collection, trade facilitation, and customs control was identified, MRA was identified as the best administration for such a study visit and subsequently  agreed to host this benchmarking study. 

During the 4-day benchmarking study visit, six officials in charge of risk management from RRA and URA as well as a number of MRA officials responsible for risk management and PCA actively shared their risk management and PCA framework, practices and challenges, focusing on systematic approach on case selection of PCA and profiling and targeting with effective data analysis.  In addition to the customs risk management framework and practice, MRA also shared its enterprise-wide risk management framework.  Thanks to the kind cooperation extended by MRA, the delegates were also given an opportunity to visit the relevant offices of MRA dealing with risk management, PCA as well as cargo inspection site to observe its operation and efforts for effective risk management.  These field visits clearly contributed to enrich the understanding on MRA’s good practices in risk management and open discussions among all participants enabled them to get certain ideas for further improvement of their respective risk management practices and operation.   

The WCO, JICA and the representatives from RRA and URA expressed their appreciation to MRA management and staffs for their kind arrangement and opportunity offered. All participants valued this visit and assured that the findings, ideas and good practices observed during the benchmarking study would be shared with their administrations for possible incorporation and further improvement in their future risk management operations.