(Brussels, 03-04 April 2014)

The Integrity Sub-Committee (ISC) held its 13^th Session on 3 and 4 April 2014 at the World Customs Organization (WCO) headquarters in Brussels. Over 140 delegates representing WCO Member administrations and stakeholder organizations participated and discussed practical issues and approaches towards combating corruption and enhancing governance in Customs.

The WCO Secretary General, Mr. Kunio Mikuriya, opened the session with emphasis on the relevance of integrity to Customs capacity building. He emphasized that the work of the 5^th Capacity Building Committee in pursuing objectives and programs under the theme; "Strong People – Strong Organizations" and the ensuing discussions and strategies formulated around the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation can best be accomplished on the basis of integrity. In that regard the ISC mandate to enhance Customs integrity was very significant, taking account of the innovative issues on the Agenda.

The Agenda included a round table on reform efforts to combat corruption, which discussed extensively, measures that Australia, Brazil and South Africa Customs had implemented to sustain the necessary vigilance to combat corruption in those administrations. Prior to that the Director of Capacity Building, Mr. Erich Kieck had set the tone with a brief on, managing governance risks through reforms. Other innovative issues discussed were: the concept of risk mapping in the context of anti-corruption which showed the example of Germany; and a panel discussion on the strategies for preventing procurement fraud that shared the initiatives of Norway, the experiences of USAID and practical field examples from the World Bank.

The ISC was also briefed by the Secretariat on the latest integrity developments which took note of updates on the activities of the Secretariat and the recent inclusion of a case study from Uruguay in the Integrity Development Guide as well as release of the published 9^th edition of the WCO Integrity Newsletter. Another important discussion point was on the experiences of Customs administrations in enhancing governance from post-conflict conditions. The ISC benefited from the experiences of Tunisia and Liberia and some perspectives from the UNDP.

The 13^th session of the ISC was chaired by Mr. David Dolan of the United States Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) who was re-elected as the Chairperson for the next ISC session to be held in Brussels in February 2015.

The ISC took note of all discussions and proposed measures for adoption by Members. A full report of the 13^th session of the Integrity Sub-Committee will be made available on the WCO website soon.