W. Samoa's own Watergate

From FELISE VA'A in Apia

Chickens are flying home to roost in Western Samoa. Rumours circulat ing over the last two years—and reaching PIM in great detail—have alleged widespread corruption in government departments, notably in Customs. They have now crystallised and the Samoans are likely to experi ence their own brand of Watergate.

The Public Service Commission, in July, suspended Comptroller of Cus toms Mr Vincent Brebner and Col lector of Customs Mr Falevi Petana pending an inquiry into the running of the department.

The call for the inquiry came after the production in parliament of a detailed report by the Public Ac counts Committee of irregularities in the conduct of Customs business in cluding the falsification of import entries and even hints of a little smuggling on the side.

The committee’s report doesn’t mince matters, describing the situ ation existing in Customs as “topsy turvey”.

There was corruption in high places, the report inferred, and this corruption “had to do with special treatment accorded particular firms, the manipulation of entries of certain companies, the loose manner in which bonded warehouses are controlled, the infrequent reconciliations and negligent manner in which the ware

house register is kept and the indiffer ence attached to the examining and passing of entries”.

The committee complained that there was a lack of control over the clearance of inter-island vessels be tween Pago Pago and Apia, and, no doubt, of overseas vessels.

“All these factors”, said the report, “pointed to one conclusion that the administration of the Customs De partment appeared to be “haphazard, inefficient and corrupt”.

The committee found numerous cases of goods being released without payment of import duties, one not able instance being the release of goods without payment of $4,143 to a merchant who was also an MP.

The amount was still outstanding.

Three other firms owed $9,443 be tween them.

Another company owed $36,895.24 for short-payment of duty. Said the report: “It is a matter for consider able regret to note that import entries involved in this case were all, with one exception, checked and passed by a very senior Customs officer. No invoices could be found anywhere to verify the CD Vs and it was obvious that in most cases values were mani pulated by a simple shifting back-

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ward of the decimal point or mis stating the country of origin of the imports.

“Yet another company owed $24,326.83 representing short-payment of import duties which arose because of subsequently disallowed claims.

But again collusion between the cus toms examiner and the importer was suspected. Other firms owed $8,899.42 all of which had been paid since so that only $3,670.51 was still owing by firms, other than the ones already mentioned.

“Thus, the Customs Department failed badly in the administration of the law affecting import duties.

Some unethical practices were re sorted to and worst of all, top Cus toms officers had apparently colluded with importers in falsifying the re cords”.

Because of the inefficiency of the Customs Department in controlling the bonded warehouses, and the lack of complete honesty in those respons ible for their operation, the commit tee recommended the immediate closing of all licensed bonded ware houses except those in the sheds at Apia Wharf.

With regard to the movements of inter-island ships, the committee said it felt that a considerable amount of smuggling was going on because there was little, if any, check made on

whether the cargo discharged agreed! with the manifest.

It, therefore, recommended thatl ships arriving from Pago should be: cleared in daylight hours only and! that cargo from those ships should! be handled as was other overseas; cargo.

The committee pointed out thatl having a separate Comptroller of Customs and a Collector of with the relevant Act providing fois the latter post only, caused internal! misunderstanding as to degrees of responsibility of the two officers coni cerned, thus providing an excellenj escape valve for either to “pass tha buck” to the other.

The committee recommended tha a senior officer be sought from th( NZ Department of Customs to hea( the local department.

The Commission of Inquiry hac begun its work at the time of writing Government officer members ar< Laufili Time (chairman), Amituana Vili, David Hull (Attorney-General), Eddie Meredith (PSC) and Martin Kleis (Commissioner of Labour) who are sitting with private company representatives and an employees’ representative.

The commission will report its find ings to the Public Service Commiss ion, so that the PSC, it is pointed out with scrupulous attention to the maxim that no-one’s guilty until it’s proved, may decide either to fire the people responsible or give them a salary rise!