MRA capacitating staff members in drone flying to track down smuggling of goods through uncharted porous routes

MRA Head of Corporate Affairs, Steve Kapoloma

* Smuggling of goods remains a key challenge in the drive to increase revenue collection in the country

* Anti-smuggling teams FAST patrols the uncharted routes where smuggling is prone but the work was very tough on the ground

By Tione Andsen, MANA

In order to curtail smuggling of goods into the country through many of uncharted porous routes along the borders with the neighbouring countries, Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) is capacitating its staff members in drone flying surveillance techniques.

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Head of Corporate Affairs, Steve Kapoloma said this in his presentation during an engagement with the media in Mponela, Dowa to brief MRA’s  role as an implementation agency for Southern Africa Trade & Connectivity Project (SATCP) — where he admitted that smuggling of goods remains a key challenge in the drive to increase revenue collection in the country.

He said most imported goods into the country are not declared at borders as smugglers use uncharted porous and the challenges MRA is facing in dealing with the situation is exacerbated during dry seasons where such uncharted routes are passable and prove to be conducive areas for smuggling.

He hastened to add that MRA has anti-smuggling teams called Flexible Anti-smuggling Team (FAST) which patrols the uncharted routes where smuggling is prone — but the work was very tough on the ground.

Smuggling style

Kapoloma further said they believe the challenges would be lessened with the coming of drones that would be procured by SATCP with funding from World Bank which is supporting the Nacala Corridor.

The decision to use drones in smuggling surveillance was announced way back in 2021 and Kapoloma said they when MRA kick-started the process of procuring the drones, they faced some challenges somehow and it was halted.

“Now, the World Bank has come full throttle at this stage and we hopefully that by the next three months, we should have them in operational.”

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Currently, Kapoloma said, 21 MRA staff members are now able to fly the drones having been certified by Civil Aviation Department: “We want to deal with the issue of smuggling in a smarter way. There is huge impact on smuggling because is being played in blank side.

“The magnitude of the malpractice will be difficult to assess. Through our patrols we have noticed that we have lost or recovered about K3 billion and this could just be tip of the iceberg.”

Kapoloma added that most importantly, MRA was doing everything possible to deal with issues of smuggling by involving communities because the Authority could not be everywhere.

“We need to make sure that wherever smuggling is taking place, there should be whistle-blowers to inform us. We are partnering with chiefs and local leaders to support MRA initiatives to curb smuggling and we believe the coming in of drones will deal with it completely,” he said.   

Wellington Chiponde

Present at the media interface was representation from the Department of Immigration & Citizenship Services, who along with MRA are part of the implementation agencies for SATCP which is being funded by World Bank.

The Immigration Department’s national public relation officer (PRO) Wellington Chiponde said there are 36 border posts with neighbouring countries — out of which only four are automated — namely Kamuzu and Chileka international Airports, Mwanza and Mchinji borders.

“We intended to automate 16 border posts in the country so that we can do away with manual recording of data,” Chiponde said. “We largely depend on the entry and exit cards to update our data base manually.”

He added that the automated border would help them check on the issue of illegal immigrants and human trafficking.

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Meanwhile, during the closing of media orientation, Chief Civil Engineer in the Ministry of Transport & Public Works, Edwin Matanga advised the media to be proactive in developing close working partnerships and networking platforms with SATCP’s implementation agencies in order to provide accurate information.

Matanga said various implementation agencies have specific roles to play for the success delivery of the project, emphasising that the media need to be proactive in following up each stage of the SATCP’s implementation process.

“We have 14 implementation agencies within the project and the media is free to access them for more information through their PROs,” Matanga said. “We are challenging the media to involve the PROs to get right information and use it to create more awareness for the benefit of Nacala Corridor stakeholders.”

He called on the implementation agencies to work with the media as partners, saying free flow of information would help to reduce issues of speculations and misinformation.

Engineer Sharmey Banda

SATCP infrastructure coordinator, Sharmey Banda said the project has an obligation with the media in order to enhance issues of transparency and accountability and he asked the Fourth Estate to always provide checks and balances for SATCP’s smooth implementation.

The participating media houses included Malawi News Agency (MANA), Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS), Nation, Times Group, Malawi Institute of Journalism (MIJ), Mibawa Television, Chanco Radio, Capital Radio and Nyasa Times.—Editing by Maravi Express

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