Diego Dávila: "The customs of the future is the one that will know everything about you before your arrival in the country"

Diego Dávila has been a year and a half

Director General of Customs.

He arrived at the post after holding the position of Deputy Director in place of Juan José Gómez Centurión and after a stage in the Cabinet Office as Undersecretary for Interministerial Liaison. But the strength of his story lies in the private sector of the brewery Quilmes, where he worked for more than 25 years and retired as the number one company low profile, inversely proportional to the brands he knows lead. Today, its challenge is far removed from consumption and concerns 56 customs posts and 163 border posts. His job involves managing some 5,300 employees, but most importantly, advancing technology, reducing bureaucracy and strengthening controls in the context of cultural transformations and judicial investigations such as the "container mafia".

"The customs of the future is the one that will know everything about you before you arrive in the country, "he predicts, which is why the reengineering he is facing also includes projects that impact on pbadengers, such as air transport. expansion of franchises.
ree shop and purchases abroad from US $ 300 to US $ 500, the incorporation of a tablet or notebook and a mobile phone in travel incidents, the new delimitation of the customs clearance Pbadenger Attention and Pbadenger Risk Management with Information Anticipated by Migration (API).

The door-to-door postal franchise has also been increased to $ 50 per shipment and scanners and scanners have been incorporated to identify dangerous goods and narcotics. But there is another that can not be seen. And on top of that, he meets hand in hand with
THE NATION.

-In what state is the mafia causing containers?

-C & # 39; is a cause that was initiated at the time thanks to the AFIP Internal Audit Sub-Directorate and through the customs control staff. Justice acts and advances with a number of investigations. About 70 customs officers have been called and we are currently investigating an oral procedure. I think it's a cause that opens up many other processes.

– What do you mean in particular?

-This generates a completely different perception of risk. One of the most important projects has been the investigation of non-intrusive controls in the Buenos Aires terminals and at the national level. We are investing US $ 25 million in the acquisition of computerization and electronic management technologies. And we try to minimize the level of interference of the person. We also deal with the question of seals in order to generate the traceability of the goods in these containers, as well as all that concerns the documentary part: in the cause of the containers, there are manifestos not corresponding to the contents of the goods or the weight. In other words, originally, they said they sent a container of 8,000 kilograms of plastic bags when, in reality, 25,000 kilos of cell phones, technology or anything else came. Above all, there were many in the textile industry. It's the criminal maneuver we have to control. By digitizing the process from the destination to the origin, we will have more comprehensive control that will allow us to have a complete knowledge of what is going on.

– Could you establish the number of irregularities?

-We are talking about a tiny amount compared to the total universe. There are about 600 containers. I do not know how many there were in the past. The warning signal started when it was detected that there was no coincidence of weight and merchandise with the original manifest. This occurs during the audit and from there to the Prosecutor of Economic Crime and Money Laundering (Procelac).

-Do you spend about 56 customs and 163 border crossings, how is the change that we are trying to implement?

-The first was to generate, within the organization chart, the Directorate of the reengineering of customs processes. It is a department of licensed economic operators, in which the world is heading. In addition, we have everything to do with new technologies, regulatory simplification and the single window for foreign trade. Everything we plan from day one is already working; we have a fully open customs office and we work in a dialogue space that did not exist before. We have resumed the dialogue in 2017 and we now meet regularly with representatives of the private sector, the main protagonist, because we are a control body. From the beginning, we propose to control, but in an intelligent way, after having provided the resources, the people and the information technologies to carry out a precise control. On the other hand, the goal is to generate everything related to trade facilitation.

-This has to do with the decisions made over the last decade …

Yes And not to mention the power of the truck drivers. Now, with the Belgrano plan, there are cities and economies that have been revived by the recovery of trains. For reference: a cost for river transport is equal to one; in train he is three; per bit is five and by truck, seven, for example. That is why, if it changes, we are again extremely competitive, but we can not do it because we have to invest in barges of Argentine origin.

-Why is not it done?

-Because there is a regulatory cost to stop in all these ports. Unfortunately, the investment must also be done. We must continue to eliminate the moorings that should not be there; Today we have this situation that we have to change. It is up to us to move in the rivers and waterways. There remains one year of current contract with the private operator; ends in 2020.

-What is the situation today for the waterway?

The waterway is over 3000 km long and about 5000 vessels pbad each year. Traffic is from north to south, mainly. Everything goes down from the ports of Bolivia, continues through Paraguay. More specifically, there was a situation concerning Paraguayan barges transhipped on inter-oceanic vessels: more than 90% of our flag was under the Paraguayan flag and that is what we had lost and crossed in Nueva Palmira, Uruguay. We have recovered the flow – not yet 100% – after a meeting with the Paraguayan shipowners, with people coming from ports here and the Paraguayan customs – two weeks ago in Asunción – to generate everything that we have to do in terms of traceability. on the waterway. The prefecture, which controls the number of vessels in the waterway, is another key player. There is a lot to do, to invest. Do not forget that we are in the last year of the concession, which is private. The waterway can give more competition in terms of costs. Today, more than 85% of goods transported to Argentina are trucked. A smaller amount, 9 or 10%, is in the process and the rest is fluvial. In Europe, it is all the opposite.

-And then relicita …

-The sheet is already being set up at the Under-Secretariat of Ports and Waterways, but it is also necessary to widen the river, flirt and take charge of river transport as everywhere in the world.

-What is the most difficult to run an agency such as customs?

-There are cultural problems. There are investment problems because there have been many years without investment in customs. When you pbad the customs inside – I like to go to see the border crossings, see the facilities, see how you work – you find very professional people, trained but who have a breakdown in terms of quality of work. You ask one of them and they tell you immediately that there is a lack of printers, computers. I believe that all the technology, the protocols of action – there was no verification protocol – that we defined last year, give restraint tools to the person who finally takes the decisions. I do not think that there is a structural corruption because, as in many organizations, there are good people, since we are in permanent action, we do not rest every day of the year but sometimes they transcend the action of a few. You must think of a customs office that controls but does not harm people.

-What are the references?

-Korea, United States, Peru, a lot of Europe, not to mention … let's move on to that. It will take time and is not done in one direction. You must not only make the investment, but also perform the administrative part of calls for tenders, purchases. It's on the right track and we've done it in a year.

-What is he missing from others?

-Technology and all the change in depoliticization processes. We need to reduce human interactions and reduce third party intervention. Sometimes they have to intervene in Anmat, ANAC, etc. … since we do not determine tax policies, we only control and determine the regimes of a particular situation. There is a lot to do, but the good thing is that this is detected. Another problem, international postal parcels: for the first time, Argentina has a technology that allows it to see what happens on the tomograph. Everything is controlled like that now; before that was with a scanner. There are two scanners in Montegrande, where the international commission is centralized. We put two, one for big parcels and one for small ones. Now we put a 360 scanner that measures density and volume and detects a strange thing. Especially in what are pills. Today, you have an extremely clear element in the service of the customs officer. This allows you to see that the process is faster and you can have the ability to control three times more. We are currently purchasing 38 scanners and 480 cameras. In many customs posts or borders, we need to control connectivity. And today, connectivity consists of cameras, drones. It's simple

– Does it have resistance?

-There is no explicit resistance. Perhaps there are moments that do not correspond to our intentions. We want to do things faster. At least we are going ahead with the bureaucrats. We are moving forward on the air and sea manifesto, which is filling an impressive number of roles.

-Another theme, perhaps better known, is what happens when you reach Ezeiza with the commands …

-We already measure the customs time. Since you grab the suitcase and get out, the IATA measures it in 7 minutes. We were at 5 o'clock and 3 o'clock and we will go down to 2. When we affix the facial recognition with the API – prior information of the pbadenger – the speed will be greater.