Smuggling ring sought as Mombasa customs box leak hits 22 a day

The Kenyan Revenue Authority (KRA) is working to uncover a smuggling ring at Mombasa after discovering that the 22 boxes that slipped through customs untaxed was not an isolated incidents, but were moving out at that rate every day, reports the Nairobi Daily Nation.

Investigators are now working on the theory that the illegal transfer of goods, which mostly comprised of textile products, was undertaken by a single group.

The KPA's computerised terminal operations platform, Kwatos, has been blamed after it received a number of bogus entries relating to the containers. The entries were falsely attributed to Simba, an online monitoring system that the Revenue Authority uses to electronically clear shipments for passage.

A KRA official revealed that Simba had no record of the untaxed containers, indicating that the authority was completely unaware of the false approvals being passed on.

A further investigation of the container release documents failed to reveal the breakdown of manual security protocols, with KRA officials claiming they were unaware of the containers' removal. Under the system KRA officers are required to physically clear goods or declare them tax-exempt where applicable using a stamping mechanism.

The KRA has been collaborating with the Kenya's Anti-Corruption Authority on the matter, together with the Office of the Prosecutor. The perpetrators, if found, would be convicted under the country's Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, which in addition to hefty fines, would also impose a custodial sentence of up to 10 years.

 
(Source: www.schednet.com)