The WCO conducted a National Workshop on Post Clearance Audit for Armenia from 13 to 17 May 2019 with the financial support of the Eurocustoms Fund. The workshop was held in Yerevan.

The Workshop was formally opened by Mr. Mikayel Pashayan, the Deputy Chairman of the State Revenue Committee of the Republic of Armenia. In his opening remarks, the Deputy Chairman highlighted the role of Customs and the importance of PCA. He gave his appreciation to the execution of the workshop and gave a strong appeal to both the facilitators and the participants to perform the workshop mostly related on practice to receive optimal results by best practices.

22 Customs officials from PCA sections and other related units participated. The participants were introduced to the WCO’s concept on PCA in order to increase the efficiency of controls and promote trade facilitation. The workshop covered various areas including the technique of targeting under risk management strategy, cooperation with other units as well as pre-audit research, on-site audit and human resource management. Especially the function of PCA as a compliance tool was pointed out to assist the enhancement of compliance in the business sector in Armenia.

There was a strong conjunction to practical examples as well as exercises and case studies in the workshop. It was arranged to be the most tangible and concrete to give the participants the best practicability in their individual situation. Facilitators did their best to support the participants in further development on their PCA processes through the discussions during the workshop. The participants showed very eager attention to the contents. A number of questions from the participants which highlighted critical points and issues enabled fruitful and technically profound discussions.

The importance of the workshop was reflected by the presence of the public relations team of the Armenian Customs at the closing ceremony. A recording of the interviews with the Deputy Chairman, the facilitator and one of the participants was broadcasted to provide information about this successful workshop, its background and objectives to the public.