the difficulties encountered are illuminated here by three case studies: • The experience of Australia in supporting reform and modernization in Papua New Guinea. • The experience of Australia in supporting reform and modernization in Solomon Islands. • The building up of customs services in Timor-Leste. Papua New Guinea. Support to customs in Papua New Guinea was part of the border management and transport security sector of the broader Enhanced Cooperation Program (ECP), financed by the Australian Government. The ECP aims at improving national security through the strengthening of the country’s capacity to collect revenue, facilitate the lawful movement of people and goods across the border, and regulate the safety and security of international transport links. Australian officials were placed in advisory positions in various departments and agencies of the Papua New Guinea government, working with its customs to a logical framework that was negotiated and agreed with its authorities. The framework, which was to last until 2009, set forth the program’s goals, purpose, component objectives, outputs, assumptions and risks, key performance indicators, and monitoring indicators. Based on this framework, each technical assistant defined his or her area of responsibility and worked out a detailed work program against which he or she would be evaluated. Under ECP, Australian Customs has four staff working within the Papua New Guinea Internal Revenue Commission. Although some ECP positions are in-line positions, at customs the technical assistants are in an advisory capacity—they are there to assist the reform process through a combination of technical assistance and capacity building within the organization. The customs ECP team leader acts as the deputy commissioner of customs and provides high level mentoring and advice to the executive staff. The other advisory positions under ECP focus on issues such as investigations, revenue, and border security. In-country advisors are complemented by work placements for Papua New Guinea officers in Australia and by training in both countries. The ECP strategy was expected to move away from hands-on, operational activities
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and to gradually focus more on developing government capacity. Solomon Islands. Since July 2003 Australia has been setting up the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), responding to a request for assistance from Solomon Islands Government to restore security and law and order. Following four years of tensions in the country, the program aims at both providing stabilization assistance to Solomon Islands and developing longer term institution strengthening and peace building. Among its objectives are to transform Solomon Islands Customs into an administration capable of delivering revenue and community protection programs and reduce compliance costs through trade facilitation. The program log framework, jointly developed by Australian and Solomon Islands Customs, details activities until 2009, but assistance is likely to continue after this date. The framework gives priority to management development, policy, legislation (including a new tariff schedule, implementing the HS 2002, 8 and revising the exemption schedule), improving business processes (such as compliance and risk management), and ICT (including a cargo management system). In 2005 Australian Customs deployed two officers to Solomon Islands in advisory positions and made resources available for the purchase of equipment. The officers provide advice on operational issues, provide technical assistance, and build capacity. Australian Customs also provides short term work placements and training for Solomon Islands officers in Australia. Corporate governance remains a key issue to be addressed. Capacity and skills within the organization are still limited, and resistance to change makes reform difficult. That is why advisors took substantial operational work even though the emphasis of the program is on capacity building. Timor-Leste. As in Solomon Islands, so in TimorLeste a creation or relaunch of customs services benefited from secondments of international customs staff in a comprehensive donor community effort to assist the country. Timor-Leste gained its independence in 2002. Following the 1999 civil unrest in East Timor a United Nations multilateral peacekeeping mission had been established there with executive, judicial, legislative, and administrative