On the eve of the International Customs Day introducing the theme of “Data analysis for Effective Border Management”, the WCO finalized the deployment of the National Customs Enforcement Network (nCEN) application in Haiti with an nCEN Workshop in Port-au-Prince. Selected officers from the headquarters as well as airport and seaport units were trained on the functionality of the system, given a theoretical background on data gathering and the analytical possibilities provided by the nCEN application, and engaged in discussions on the practical uses of the application in the daily work of the Administration.

It has been almost three years since the first version of the nCEN was launched by the WCO, and Haiti became the twenty-second country in the world to implement the application.   The nCEN, developed by the WCO to assist Customs administrations with the collection and storage of law-enforcement information at the national level, is a tool which aims to strengthen a country’s capacity to conduct effective, risk based and intelligence supported customs operations, allows for information gathering on non-compliance and non-compliant actors as a key foundation for identification of effective action items in key risk areas, and improves a country’s analytical capability to permit targeted controls of shipments. 

All data input into the nCEN is searchable and analyzable, with the possibility of creating ‘watch lists’ of arriving passengers, companies appearing in the country, and/or vessels or containers arriving at the shores.

The nCEN software is made available to all WCO Members free of charge. The costs of the hardware needed to run the nCEN application, the costs associated with the training, and possible costs for modifications to the local IT infrastructure (if applicable), are however the responsibility of the implementing Customs Administration.  More information on the nCEN can be obtained by contacting the WCO CEN Programme at nCEN@wcoomd.org.