KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister of Finance and Public Service Audley Shaw has announced measures to tackle corruption and is taking aim at the Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA), which he said tops his list of agencies that has some level of corruption.

Shaw, who was speaking at the third Conference of the Caribbean Commonwealth Association of Integrity Commissions at the Jamaica Pegasus yesterday, noted that with corruption there is loss of confidence, loss of jobs, poor social services and infrastructure, inability to properly fund the budget due to complex reasons including tax evasions and tax avoidance.“We have a number of agencies that have come to immediate attention and I put on the top of my list the Customs Administration of Jamaica. Customs represents not just revenue or the potential of revenue leakage, it also represents a point of national security”, Shaw stated in emphasising his ministry’s importance in ridding Jamaica of corruption.He maintained that when properly organised, “our own internal resources can be better directed if we want to cut out corruption.”Shaw also disclosed that in Montego Bay, St James, firearms were smuggled in a “sophisticated fashion” as they were disassembled so that they wouldn’t appear through x-rays and as guns.“The customs agency therefore has to be reorganised and made more effective,” Shaw said, adding that he has formally requested assistance from the US Government to make the customs administration more effective.He added that at this moment, he is looking at a variety of technologies in developing modern methods of searching 100 per cent of containers.“The technology exists and we are going to put that technology to work,” Shaw maintained.Other agencies that have been brought to his attention include the Tax Administration of Jamaica (TAJ), Public Accountability Inspectorate, Financial Investigative Division, Revenue Protective Divisions, and the Revenue Appeals Division.Moya Hinds