40 Customs middle management staff, comprising 4 non-commissioned officer cadets and 36 inspector cadets, received their diplomas on Thursday, October 28, 2021 at a ceremony held at DGD headquarters. Among them were 20 Guinea-Bissau elements. The ceremony was co-chaired by the Director General of Customs, Abdourahmane DIÈYE, and the Ambassador of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau in Dakar, His Excellency Armando Albino ARAFÃ.

20 student customs inspectors of Bissau-Guinean nationality, trained by the Senegalese Customs School, have just swelled the ranks of their country’s economic soldiers. Their integration into the 39th Promotion is part of the fruitful cooperation between the customs administrations of the two countries. This was materialized by a mutual administrative assistance memorandum of understanding, signed on September 30, 2016 in Bissau. To this end, in 2018, Senegalese Customs welcomed 10 Bissau-Guinean student inspectors trained as part of the 38th promotion. In 2019, 15 Bissau-Guinean customs officials were incubated in customs units in Dakar, and received intermittent reinforcement of their theoretical foundations at the École des Douanes. As a further sign of its commitment to Bissau-Guinean Customs, the Senegalese Customs Administration dispatched a team of trainers to Bissau from September 14 to October 2, 2020, for a capacity-building mission for 90 Bissau-Guinean Customs agents. In 2021, two Senegalese Customs Inspectors carried out a six-month technical and operational support mission to Customs Offices in the main border regions of Bafata and Gabou in the north, and Sao Domingo in the south, at the request of senior Bissau-Guinean authorities.

Quality training

The training and capacity-building courses organized for Guinea-Bissau customs officers meet standard standards and include both purely customs modules (litigation, surveillance, customs legislation and tariff technology) and several other subjects ranging from customs procedures and intelligence to public finance, professional English, administrative drafting, ethics and narcotics, among others.

The quality of this training, combined with the masterly on-the-job supervision provided by the trainers sent to Bissau, produced immediate and satisfactory results in terms of both revenue mobilization and securing the international supply chain.

Good neighbors

For his part, the Ambassador of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau in Dakar, His Excellency Armando Albino ARAFÃ, emphasized the vital role of training and information sharing in the conduct of joint projects and in the synergy of action necessary for the development of both countries. He also praised the important contribution of Senegalese Customs “in the development of Guinea-Bissau’s human capital”. This is why, according to the diplomat, “our government appreciates the dynamic and sincere cooperation between our two countries, and hopes to perpetuate it”.

Through Senegalese Customs, His Excellency Ambassador Armando Albino ARAFÃ thanked the Government of Senegal for its contribution to the training of Guinea-Bissau’s economic soldiers. He invited the recipients “to serve their country, UEMOA and ECOWAS with self-sacrifice”. In his speech, the Director General of Senegalese Customs expressed his delight at the excellence of the bilateral cooperation, which in his eyes reflects “the mutual desire of the high authorities of our respective countries to perpetuate the age-old friendship between our two brotherly peoples”.

For Abdourahmane DIÈYE, the training of these 20 inspectors from Guinea-Bissau alongside their Senegalese colleagues is “another milestone in the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding and Mutual Administrative Assistance signed between the two Administrations”. “Since the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation and mutual administrative assistance in customs matters, our two administrations have already carried out several major training initiatives together”, adds the Director General, welcoming the results of this “fruitful and instructive partnership”. In the same vein, he paid tribute to the Command of the Customs School and to the supervisors, not without acknowledging the support of the World Bank in the realization of these training projects. Lastly, he reminded the recipients of the hopes placed in them, and the self-sacrifice that must guide their action, with “a spirit of resilience and adaptation, combined with discipline at all times, will enable you to face up effectively not only to the challenges, but also to overcome the many pitfalls”.

Towards a customs academy

Baptised in 1970, the current Senegalese Customs School is the main provider of personnel for the Customs Administration. With the Programme de Modernisation de l’Administration des Douanes (PROMAD), a new Customs School, with a capacitý of over 500 auditors and equipped with all the necessary amenities will soon see the light of day in Sandiara, rejoices the Head of the Training Division, Lieutenant-Colonel Habib Ampa Florentin DIENG. This initiative by the Director General confirms the growing importance of the École des Douanes, whose role in achieving PROMAD’s objectives is paramount. Customs officials in Guinea-Bissau are sure to benefit even more from the expertise of their Senegalese colleagues.

Pooling the efforts of the two administrations

As part of the bilateral cooperation between the customs administrations of Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, the Director General of Guinea-Bissau Customs, Dominico Oliveira SANCA, paid a working visit to the Senegalese Customs Department on October 2, 2020. The two administrations noted with satisfaction the significant progress made in terms of capacity-building, notably with the training program for Bissau-Guinean Customs officers by the Senegalese Customs School, and the sharing of experience in human resources management, customs clearance procedures, post-clearance control and computerized management of customs procedures.

Welcoming the dynamic partnership between the two customs administrations, the two parties agreed to :

• update the Protocol by setting up a Monitoring Committee to ensure that due diligence is carried out more effectively;
• strengthen their exchange of information in the fight against fraud and international drug trafficking;
• work to interconnect the information systems of the two customs administrations through a GAINDE implementation project in Guinea-Bissau;
• share experiences in facilitation, notably in the context of the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) program.

Reiterating their commitment to working together to pool the efforts of their administrations in the face of sub-regional challenges, the two Directors General also reaffirmed their willingness to do everything possible to ensure successful cooperation between the customs authorities of Guinea-Bissau and Senegal.