Changes Reversed, Air couriers praise decision by Customs chief

Acting Comptroller of Customs, Glenn Gomez

By CLEOPATRA MURPHY

Freeport News Intern

The future of GB Express and the jobs of its employees are once again secure following a meeting with the Grand Bahama Air Couriers Association and Acting Comptroller of Customs Glenn Gomez yesterday morning.

Edward Barrett, president and owner of Sapona Imports, confirmed that the meeting was a success and that customers will no longer have to hire a broker to clear their parcels, costing them up to an additional $100.

He noted that it is no longer a requirement to fill out the C-13 (home consumption entry) form.

"He (Gomez) has given us temporary relief in reference to the required documentation that was originally required and he assured us that come January 2010, proper procedures would be drawn up and put in place to also assist in the recognition of the air courier industry in The Bahamas," Barrett said.

Ecstatic about Gomez's decision to withdraw the recently introduced procedures, Barrett said, "I am elated. I am very, very happy because the people of Grand Bahama have suffered enough and it truly is something where persons can sigh a small breath of relief."

No longer will they have to worry about paying high prices to import their much needed items into the country, he said.

Praising the Customs Department for working with the couriers during what he said has been a trying time, Barrett added, "We thank them for their assistance in helping the people and helping us to maintain our businesses."

Bob Clutter, co-owner of GB Express, said he was relieved that all parties were able to resolve the matter. He expressed his gratitude that Gomez had taken time out from his vacation to help the couriers on the island.

Clutter said excitement and relief was in the air at GB Express as he along with the employees were happy that their jobs would still be there on Monday morning.

"We're all walking on air – the Florida side, myself. It's just been a tremendous relief to all of us to know the deadline was there and to be able to have the relief," he said. "Everybody is smiling at GB today."

Clutter said he was brought to the point of tears upon learning of the decision Gomez had made in giving couriers on the island a waiver and returning to the old system. He added that now was not the time to be laying persons off.

"We're very happy and we want to thank everybody for seeing the pains and reacting positively," Clutter said.

He said business at GB Express is once again back to normal, adding that a flight was already scheduled to come to the island today.

He noted that he would like to thank his customers and the grass-roots for their support and what he said he believed made a positive outcome possible.

The grass-roots support was a great help in reaching this solution," Clutter said. "We will be able to provide service as we did once before, daily service beginning (Friday) morning."

Air couriers to meet with customs chief

By CLEOPATRA MURPHY

Freeport News

The Grand Bahama Air Couriers Association are expected to meet with Acting Comptroller of Customs Glenn Gomez today to discuss new Customs procedures that have resulted in at least one of them deciding that it is now too costly to remain in that line of business.

Edward Barrett, president and owner of Sapona Imports, confirmed yesterday that representatives for the association and Gomez will meet privately at 8:30 a.m. to discuss the new procedures implemented in late July with the hopes of arriving at a resolution that will benefit all parties.

Still, the meeting may have come too late to save GB Express, which has operated on Grand Bahama for the past 12 years.

Bob Clutter, co-owner of the company, said that as of now he still intends to close the company on August 15, which will leave 17 of his employees out of jobs.

Clutter noted that the introduction of the Customs C-13 form (customs unaccompanied baggage form) on July 20 has made it more difficult for his company and other air couriers to conduct business.

He said the forms force customers to hire a broker whose services can range anywhere from $80 to $100, eventually incurring higher costs for them.

Meanwhile, Barrett exp-lained that these additional costs can hike the price of a book that normally landed and cleared through customs at $30.49 to an astonishing $120.49.

Clutter noted that these changes have had a drastic effect on the courier industry and the public is now reluctant to do business with them.

"It has pushed the cost beyond the acceptable limit and our customer base is not in the position to absorb the extra $50 to $80 per item," Clutter said. "It has crippled business, to put it in very simple words."

The meeting with the acting comptroller of customs has been long awaited by air couriers on the island. Barrett told The Freeport News during a press conference two weeks ago that the association had made attempts to communicate with Minister of State for finance Zhivargo Laing in the hopes that he would be able to arrange a "sit down" with Gomez.

Clutter, who said he feels his company can be saved if the meeting facilitated a return to the old procedures, noted that it is unlikely. He said he feels the government has gone too far at this point and he does not envision there being a complete turnaround.

However, he said if there is any way that an agreement can be met in which parcels are landed at the airport, the duty can be paid and the products handed over to the customer while ensuring that the government gets the customs duties, it would be to the benefit of everyone.

"What we've got to do is recognize that the system needs to be changed and in the interim, create some type of policy that the system can operate with," Clutter said.

He noted that if something along this line were to happen following the association's meeting with Gomez, GB Express can possibly be saved.

"That's our goal," he said. "I've got 17 employees on this side and the other side that are sweating bullets today."

He noted that time is winding down and the issue needs to be resolved in a way that allows everyone to win.

The present conditions, he said, puts everyone at a loss — couriers as well as the government.

"If the customer pays more, we lose our customers and the country doesn't get their duties," Clutter said.

New Customs procedures In Grand Bahama

Acting Controller of Customs Glenn Gomez continues his "mission" to cleanse the Customs Department of those officers who apparently consider corruption to be included in their job description.

Gomez served notice that he intended to deal harshly with these corrupt officers in a series of startling articles published in The Nassau Guardian two weeks ago when he revealed that at least 50 of the department's 450 officers were under investigation for some sort of suspected fraud and that "until there is punishment, it is not going to change."

Last Friday, specific action was taken in support of Gomez' insistence that those officers who are found to have been engaged in corrupt practices should be punished. In a press statement, the Ministry of Finance announced that 16 officers were being interdicted pending determination of misconduct charges being brought against them.

In the process of wielding his sledgehammer on the corrupt practices in Customs, however, Gomez has instituted some new procedures in Grand Bahama that need to be revisited by the Government. The unfairness of the new regulations were highlighted at a press conference held last Wednesday by the newly formed Grand Bahama Couriers Association to voice their concerns about the new policies that were put in place by Customs on July 20.

At least one courier company that has been in business in Grand Bahama for the past 12 years, GB Express, has indicated that the new procedures have made the cost of doing business too expensive for it to continue in business, and it will be shutting its doors as of August 15 if a resolution cannot be reached by the Government.

Specifically, the courier companies say that under the old system they were able to import parcels for customers, clear them and pay customs at airfreight. Under the new procedures, however, the customs unaccompanied baggage form (C-18) that facilitated this has been replaced by another form, which requires the customer to obtain a broker, whose services could range from $80 to $100.

The absurdity of this astronomical cost being added to the importation of an item by a courier service was underscored by an example used at the press conference by Edward Barrette of Sapona Imports. According to Barrette, a book that normally landed and was cleared through Customs at $30.49 would now cost the customer $120.49.

"We are outraged by this as many of our customers cannot afford to pay this additional cost that's been thrust on them," Barrette said as last Wednesday's press conference. "It is difficult to explain to a mother who wants to educate her child that the book that she once could have afforded to bring in, she can no longer afford to bring into the country."

Obviously, when Gomez and his "advisors" sat around the table to devise a plan to close the loopholes that facilitated the corrupt practices of dishonest customs officers, they did not take under consideration a circumstance such as this.


Minister of State for Finance Zhivargo Laing, who represents the Marco City constituency of Grand Bahama, is well aware of the fact that there are a whole lot of "ordinary" Grand Bahamians who use these courier services to bring in items at considerable savings if they had to go abroad to purchase them themselves.

Grand Bahama is hurting bad economically and has been since the devastating hurricanes of 2004 forced the closure of the Royal Oasis Resort, and the Government should be more concerned about easing the financial burden of residents of the island, rather than adding to it.

These new Customs procedures should be reversed immediately.