New Zealand Customs Service

New Zealand Customs Service

New Zealand Customs Service E-government Initiatives

• Remote access for customs officers
• Electronic export filing
• Advanced information (Passage, Name, Record)

Summary

Ready Access: Customs' websites are of a high standard, providing ready access to quality information and well-developed services. Customs has quality metadata, making it easy for people to access its information through the portal.

Alignment: Customs' business development strategies are aligned to the E-government Strategy. Many of the developments within Customs have been made to ensure compliance and convergence with international standards.

Internet and Communications Technology

Customs collected GST, duty and excise totalling more than $7 billion in 2003/2004. Much of Customs' information technology revolves around the ongoing development of CUSMOD and NEXUS, including Internet interfaces. CUSMOD was originally introduced to process arriving and departing passengers, clear imports entries and record exports activity. The system is a critical tool to help identify risk passengers and goods.

More recently, CUSMOD has formed the foundation for a data matching system called NEXUS. Customs and other government agencies use the system to analyse and act upon information gathered from the travelling public, agencies and businesses within New Zealand and overseas.

Decisions on cargo examination, frontline passenger checks, and prohibited goods and wildlife enforcement are based on alerts generated from NEXUS and CUSMOD. As the system is highly networked with direct links to external databases, system interoperability, database convergence, information security, and governance all require careful management.

Internet access is becoming increasingly common, often due to commercial demand. For example, the Internet is now used for the electronic filing of all exports entries. The larger New Zealand businesses use an Internet interface to submit export entries automatically from their own systems. A website is provided for smaller businesses who have lower volumes of exports. Officials then use the electronically filed exports entries to clear containers for loading onto ships or planes.

Eventually, remote computing will enable customs officers to use an Internet interface to access information from CUSMOD and NEXUS while searching through a container. The associated security, training and business process challenges to doing this are being considered.

Customs' most successful e-government initiatives have tended to provide a win-win situation for regulatory agencies, industry in general, individuals and businesses. E-government initiatives tend to be successful when:

• information gathered is efficiently shared between agencies
• costs are reduced, and time is saved for businesses
• New Zealand's international trade and security risk reputation is improved.

E-government challenges for Customs tend to be less about technology, and increasingly about people's attitudes to e-government and e-business, both within government and in the private sector.

Ready Access to Information and Services

Metadata

Customs has 105 metadata records. These consist of 90 documents, 14 services, and an agency record. Customs metadata is of a high standard.

Particularly useful are the links to sections of the Customs website for particular groups, e.g. travellers or importers.

A wide variety of documents are available through the Portal. However, documents may not be easy for people and businesses to find unless they know the correct terms to use. Customs could consider using plain language as much as possible in the descriptions. This will also help people to understand the purpose of forms and identify whether a particular form is what they are looking for.

Website Assessment

Websites assessed during May 2004 included:

www.customs.govt.nz
www.customsentry.govt.nz

Overall, Customs' websites are of a high standard.

The strengths of the sites are in e-services and information delivery, but the usability and accessibility of the sites could be improved.

The information the Customs sites are required to provide can all be readily accessed on its websites.

Key quality issues noted during the assessment included:

• Good range, depth and presentation of information and services content.
• Usability and site navigation could be improved for easier use.
• The addition of consultation documents would make it easier to offer feedback on proposed changes to policy or procedures.
• Many required email addresses are not available or were not answered during the assessment.
• Missing accessibility features such as navigation skipping, access keys and style sheet problems impede some physically impaired people's access.
• Some documents are in PDF or Word only, excluding people who are unable or unwilling to read these formats.
• Contact details could be more specific, to enable responsive handling of enquires.

Alignment With E-government Goals

Convenience and Satisfaction

Customs is an advanced user of networks and Internet technology. In addition to a general website that provides information on who to contact, what to pay, and what to do, Customs is increasingly developing sophisticated Internet based transactional services.

Integration and Efficiency

The level of information and service integration and efficiency is good. Many government agencies, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of Conservation, the Department of Labour, the Ministry of Social Development, the Department of Internal Affairs, Statistics New Zealand, the New Zealand Police and New Zealand Security Intelligence Service have varying degrees of access to information held in CUSMOD and NEXUS. The information shared (or collected) helps each agency achieve its respective goals and objectives.

Customs is further integrating its information and systems. An initiative called Passage, Name, Record (PNR) will enable Customs to process and profile passenger movements before they travel. By directly accessing global passenger travel databases, passenger processing times will be reduced in airports where increasing passenger volumes and physical constraints are occurring.

The use of satellites to transmit passenger details between cruise ships and Customs, is another example of the Customs advanced use of information technology. Satellite transmissions are used to clear passengers into New Zealand before the cruise ships berth, making passenger disembarking a more effective and less onerous process.

Participation

Customs makes good use of its website to involve its stakeholders in Customs' processes.