The World Customs Organization (WCO) and Bahamas Customs and Excise Department (BCED) signed an agreement in December 2017 to carry out an 18-month comprehensive organizational and human resources development programme under the Bahamas Trade Sector Support Programme, financed by the Inter-American Development Bank.

As part of the WCO monitoring and evaluation of the programme, a final assessment took place at the BCED Headquarters 21-24 October 2019. Two WCO experts, along with the Bahamas Executive Board and the Comptroller of Customs, performed a joint assessment of the programme results and its outcomes. During the week-long mission, the team reviewed the WCO Mercator Program Implementation Grid including the activity results and outstanding WCO recommendations. The assessment determined that the training programme initiatives met the programme’s goals and that the programme’s recommendations were properly addressed to date.  The recommendations will be continued to be implemented and acted upon in a post-program phase.  This will take place as part of an extension agreement that was signed between the BCED and to the WCO to cover post-program activities from end of 2019 to end of 2020.

At the closure of the meeting, the project manager gave an overview of the final evaluation of the programme and informed BCED that an activity report will be provided by mid-November 2019.

The Comptroller of Customs expressed her gratitude to the WCO and stated that she looked forward to long-term cooperation with the WCO to further capacity building, especially in critical areas such as enforcement, classification, LMD and the AEO programme. The WCO also expressed its willingness to continue collaboration with BCED now and in the future to meet help it meet the challenges and opportunities of the XXI century.

For more information about this activity, please contact: capacity.building@wcoomd.org.