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Customs Brokers who operate from the Department in Kingston Monday morning demonstrated against changes implemented by new Commissioner of Customs, Danville Walker.
The brokers became restive when they turned up to find the changes had been implemented without consultation with them.
President of the Customs Brokers Association of Jamaica Christopher Kennedy said the changes caused a slow down in operations as brokers were dislocated from the area in which they usually operated and were prevented from accessing other sections of the department.
He said a meeting has since been held with Mr. Walker to address their concerns.
"We made some representation and the Commissioner came over, apologised and addresses us and has given us the assurance that he's going to put in the necessary infrastructure to accommodate us tomorrow," he said.
Since his appointment, Mr. Walker has been mandated to improve revenue collection, border control and import/export procedures within the department.
Changes are to maintain integrity - Walker
Mr. Walker said the operational changes are part of a new policy to restrict interaction between the public and Custom Officers.
He said the changes have been implemented to maintain the integrity of operations at the Department.
"Customs Brokers have to interface with Customs Officers but they cannot interface with the particular officer who is working on their document.
We want a system where when you hand in your documents, officers work on it and if you have a query, senior officers' work on it but, you should not be dealing with the officer who has classified the goods or if you have an issue with the classification.
To affect that, we redesigned the entrance to the custom house by blocking off certain areas so that the general public cannot go into the custom house and wander around and go into sensitive areas of customs," said Mr. Walker.
The brokers became restive when they turned up to find the changes had been implemented without consultation with them.
President of the Customs Brokers Association of Jamaica Christopher Kennedy said the changes caused a slow down in operations as brokers were dislocated from the area in which they usually operated and were prevented from accessing other sections of the department.
He said a meeting has since been held with Mr. Walker to address their concerns.
"We made some representation and the Commissioner came over, apologised and addresses us and has given us the assurance that he's going to put in the necessary infrastructure to accommodate us tomorrow," he said.
Since his appointment, Mr. Walker has been mandated to improve revenue collection, border control and import/export procedures within the department.
Changes are to maintain integrity - Walker
Mr. Walker said the operational changes are part of a new policy to restrict interaction between the public and Custom Officers.
He said the changes have been implemented to maintain the integrity of operations at the Department.
"Customs Brokers have to interface with Customs Officers but they cannot interface with the particular officer who is working on their document.
We want a system where when you hand in your documents, officers work on it and if you have a query, senior officers' work on it but, you should not be dealing with the officer who has classified the goods or if you have an issue with the classification.
To affect that, we redesigned the entrance to the custom house by blocking off certain areas so that the general public cannot go into the custom house and wander around and go into sensitive areas of customs," said Mr. Walker.
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