Director of Customs · Mauritius Revenue Authority · 2012 to 2015 · Mauritius
The challenge
Mauritius Customs is a revenue, security and trade-facilitation agency in one, responsible for around a billion US dollars a year in customs, excise, import VAT and environmental taxes, for the integrity of the island’s air and sea borders, and for the speed of clearance on which a small open economy depends. The Authority needed a Director who could run the operation and modernise it at the same time.
Our role
Director of Customs, leading some 650 officers and reporting to the Director-General of the Mauritius Revenue Authority.
What we did
Setting revenue, anti-smuggling, security and risk-management policy and issuing the administrative decisions on assessments, penalties and refunds that follow from it; overseeing ISO accreditation, integrity investigations, the authorised economic operator and supply-chain security programme, the single window and IT reforms, and the construction of a new US$5 million customs building at the Air Cargo Village; chairing the Authority’s disaster-preparedness work and sitting on the national aviation and port security committees; and leading inter-agency coordination with the Police, Coastguard, Prime Minister’s Office and National Security Council. The role carried national and international representation at the WCO, WTO, African Union, COMESA, SADC, the Indian Ocean Commission and IOR-ARC, and with the World Bank and IMF.
What was delivered
Three years of operational command of a national customs administration, with the single window, AEO programme, ISO accreditation, integrity reforms and a new cargo facility delivered alongside the revenue and security mandate.
