Survey of Customs in Montenegro (June 2006)

In the context of the last year of implementation of the Trade and Transport Facilitation Project in Southeast Europe for Serbia and Montenegro, financed by the World Bank ( see www.seerecon.org/ttfse), a structured survey of 154 firms in Montenegro was undertaken to explore perceptions and experience with Customs control, treatment, services and border officers.  This survey was also designed to allow a comparison of the situation in 2006 with the year 2002 with a focus on: (i) equality and predictability; (ii) perceptions of process and procedures of Customs services; and (iii) existence and nature of informal payments.

The firms surveyed have extensive experience working with Customs over the past four years, such as transport or freight-forwarding companies, mostly of small to mid size.  The survey design was prepared by TNS Medium Gallup in Serbia in consultation with the SCGPRO Committee (Trade Facilitation Committee for Serbia and Montenegro), the Customs of Serbia and Montenegro, and the World Bank.  The fieldwork, data entry, processing and analysis for Montenegro was carried out by the Gallup partner agency for this project, CEED (Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development), from Podgorica. 

Based on the results of the survey, the Customs of Montenegro made very visible progress since 2002.  All categories (transparency, equality, standardization of procedures, ability to lodge a complaint, frequency of petty payment) improved markedly.  Corruption in Customs is assessed as Low-medium (2.26 out of a 1 to 5 scales) in Montenegro by respondents, with a relatively low frequency.  Most of the reported petty payments are made voluntarily to accelerate processing, indicating a need to further improve processing and a lack of awareness that such payments are illegal.

Despite the overall progress achieved, several respondents indicated that the Customs Administration still has significant scope for further improvement beyond the first generation reform that took place over the past four years.  The ongoing improvement of risk management and selectivity, the wider use of electronic submission of documents and electronic payments, the implementation of simplified procedures are among the next generation of reforms expected to improve further Customs efficiency and increase integrity.

Attached you will find the results of this survey in English (919 KB) and Serbian (1 MB)