Under the framework of the Mercator Programme support provided to the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA), the WCO successfully delivered a workshop to pilot its new advanced Post Clearance Audit (PCA) Training Package. The workshop was held in Kigali, Rwanda from the 29th of July to the 2nd of August 2019, benefitting 12 Customs officers of the RRAs PCA unit.

This was the third pilot workshop of the new Advanced PCA Training Package. The first one was held in November 2018 for the South African Revenue Authority (SARS) and the second one in January 2019 for the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA).

The Advanced PCA Training Package has been developed based on specific needs of Mercator beneficiary countries.  The Package provides these countries with a hands-on tool addressing the prerequisites of effective PCA implementation, and facilitative measure, to move away from controls at the border to a later stage, in line with Article 7.5 of the WTO TFA.  The Package was developed under the HMRC-WCO-UNCTAD Programme funded by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) via Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) of the United Kingdom, under the auspices of the WCO Mercator Programme.

The workshop gave an opportunity for participants to enhance their professional and operational competencies through the provision of practical tools and techniques to effectively conduct systems-based audits, focusing on a trader’s systems of internal controls, within the context of a facilitative, customs-to-business partnership.  Thanks to the frank and honest feedback from the participants, WCO will be able to further enhance the training material. The participants also highly commended the WCO for developing this training package which effectively enhances auditor’s skills and confidence in conducting onsite systems-based audits. The WCO will continue to enhance this PCA Training package  to ensure effective implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.