Customs Doubles Working Hours

29 August 2006

The Addis Abeba La garre Customs Office last week increased its working hours from eight to 16 hours a day, more than a century after its establishment.

The La garre Customs Office was established following the opening of the Ethio-Djibouti Railway Services, 116 years ago, and has always followed the same working hours exercised in all governmental offices in the country, of eight hours a day. On Wednesday August 23, 2006, the Office doubled its working hours.

According to information from the Customs Authority, 87pc of items coming into the country and being sent out go through the La garre Customs Office. The office generates the highest income of the 11 Customs Authority Stations in the country. The Ethiopian 2005/2006 budget year, which ended in June 2006, shows that 1.6 million tons of items have been imported in the country and more than 100 containers have been sent out.

The Ethiopian Customs Authority has 11 stations. The station, which was located on Ras Mekonnen Avenue, between Meskel Square and Mexico Square, was relocated two years ago to the Kaliti Comet Transport compound, thought it retained its original name.

Information from the Branch indicates that 100 to 150 trucks enter the Addis Abeba La garre customs station and an average of over 10 million Br in duties and taxes are collected every day.

One transitor told Fortune, “I get upset at the thought that though customs stations all over the world operate for 24 hours everyday of the week, the Ethiopian customs stations do not.”

A high-ranking official from the Customs Authority acknowledged that most customs stations around the world provide their services around the clock. He intoned that “if the new16 hour schedule implemented last week works to our benefit then we will consider increasing it to 24 hours of service”.

The La garre station employs 268 permanent and 23 temporary civilian staff; six members of the police force are also stationed there.

As of last week, workers responsible for searching items entering the country and those being sent out, duty and tax collectors, operation workers that deal in transit documentation and board officers now work in two eight-hour shifts.

The first shift will start providing services from 6am to 2pm; the second shift will pick up from 2pm to 10pm.

In order to avoid a shortage of staff members, the Authority will be transferring employees from other customs stations around the country to the Addis Abeba La garre branch.

An official from the Authority stated that “This 16-hour service is in a trial phase, so for now we will limit ourselves to transferring our employees from other stations to this one.” When the number of customers using the services after working hours increases, then the station will hire more employees to cope with the work.

A transitor who used the La garre Customs, recalled being turned away outside normal business hours. Though he had paid the required duties and taxes for his items and though they had been searched, he was not permitted to take his items out from storage at 12:25pm or 5:25am. “This is such a relief!” he exclaimed, referring to the extension of working hours.

Although the Addis Abeba La garre customs office initiated the 16-hour workday on Wednesday last week, on Thursday, only two people came at the opening time of six o’clock.

Yared Tesfu, who was in the Comet compound to retrieve the items he purchased from Dubai told Fortune, “I finished what I came to do without having the sun in my face or the usual shoving and pushing”, he stated that he was happy about the change. Yared had found out about the extended working hours from a friend that works at the customs office.

Because the customs office did not publicly announce its change of schedule, few customers found out about it by this Friday.

“We do not want to make a public announcement until we are able to fill the gaps that might not have been noticed during in-house tests”, stated an official from the Customs Authority, adding that they might announce the implementation during the course of the coming week.

By ISSAYAS MEKURIA
FORTUNE STAFF REPORTER