Integrity risks' such as corruption pose a risk for the work of the Customs Administration of the Netherlands. We have an important role in the logistical process, with powers, information and access to sites.
This is all very attractive to criminals, who try to hide illegal goods like drugs to legal goods and like to have someone 'on the inside' to do it. Of course, we have been working on the integrity issue for some time, but it is now even higher on the agenda. This also has to do with some incidents involving corrupt customs officials in recent years. This is one of the issues we will be addressing as a matter of priority in the coming period.
We are a government organisation. People are not free to choose whether to cooperate with us, and we have powers and influence. We have to use them wisely. Apart from that, our job is to protect society. People must be able to trust that we will do that. Customs aims to be a reliable organisation. It needs employees who do the right thing the right way.
We are working hard on this. In our work processes, for example, we have segregated powers and arbitrary check allocations. We are also working on improving the screening of employees. We have commissioned an independent study into the corruption risks in the port of Rotterdam and what we do well and less well. We want to learn, to be able to improve. We are also working to create an open culture, where we confront one another on our conduct and report suspicious matters. And we cooperate with other links in the transport and logistics chain to minimise the risks.