Customs officials held their third coordination meeting for the year last Thursday July 19.

The Directorate General of Customs has realised a feat in the customs recovery for the second semester of 2012. FCFA 154.806 billion has been collected, above the initial projection of FCFA 138.907 billion for the second semester. This represents a performance rate of 111 per cent and a 20 per cent progression vis-à-vis the same period in 2011.

The Director General of Customs, Minette Libom Li Likeng made the disclosure last Thursday July 19 in Yaounde during their third coordination meeting for the year. The traditional coordination meeting brought together all the customs officials from across the country to evaluate their activities for the past months, examine the path they have covered in meeting their objectives for the year as well as handle other burning issues like ethics and governance in the customs administration.

Speaking during the ceremony, Mrs Libom Li Likeng urged the staff to redouble their efforts for more harvest so as to ably contribute to realising the Head of State’s ‘Greater Accomplishment’ plan. Records show that for the first quarter, FCFA 294.160 billion was collected, representing a 106 per cent performance rate.

Thursday’s meeting also served as an opportunity for the Director General of Customs to remind the staff of what is expected of them in the next three months to meet and even surpass the FCFA 150.4 billion projection for the third quarter. For example, Littoral 1 is expected to fetch FCFA 126 billion, Littoral II, FCFA 8.5 billion, South West, FCFA 13.3 billion for the third quarter, among others. In all, government is expecting FCFA 550 billion in customs duty recovery for the ongoing fiscal year. The results awaited are expected to be facilitated by the recent acquisition of 155 state-of-the-art field equipment; comprising 10 Prado jeeps, 15 mini-buses, 30 Toyota vehicles and 100 motorcycles.