Organisational Entities
The Steering Group
The Steering Group will normally comprise the Director General of the Customs department, the National Project Director, donor representative(s), and UNCTAD. Representatives of other government departments with an interest in specific components of the project, for example, the ministries of Finance and Industry and Trade and the Central Statistical Office may be co-opted as necessary.
The Group’s mandate is to:
- provide overall leadership and project direction.
- make strategic business decisions.
- provide financial authority.
- monitor project progress at regular intervals.
- ensure co-ordination of all involved parties.
The National Project Director
The post of National Project Director is a full-time responsibility. The Director is selected from the Customs department and appointed by the Director General. He or she will be responsible for operational decisions, institutional liaison and strategic planning. He/she will assume day-to-day responsibility for managing the project throughout all its stages. It will be essential to define his/her delegated powers and authority for decision-making on operational issues in relation to those of the Steering Group.
The Project Support Unit (PSU)
The Project Support Unit (PSU) will provide day-to-day support to the National Project Director. Its responsibilities include:
- liaison at all levels between the project team, end-users in the Customs department, other ministries, the private sector, etc.
- administrative functions in relation to the Customs department resources, budgets, reports, etc.
To simplify the management organization it is recommended that the PSU also should incorporate the essential Quality Assurance function for the project, calling on UNCTAD and the Customs department’s business and technical inputs as required. This function ensures the technical integrity of the end product and that system outputs meet the needs/requirements in terms of both functionality and time scales for the User.
UNCTAD
UNCTAD is represented in the Steering Committee, providing inputs in accordance with the relevant section of the project document to the National Project Director, and is responsible for its own “internal” or “external” deliveries.
UNCTAD’s overall planning, coordination and monitoring services aim at continuously assessing business and technical integrity, ensuring that the general conditions for project viability and longer -term profitability are established and maintained.
The Technical Team
The Technical Team will design and implement the technical parts of the system. They will provide overall technical support for the project and detailed hardware installation plans for all sites, prepare and provide all technical documentation and special training of operator personnel. The team will comprise personnel from UNCTAD and the Customs department, assisted as and when required by local partners.
The Application Development Team
The Application Development Team will be in charge of the development of any Customs department application based upon the core ASYCUDAWorld package. They will carry out all tasks related to additional application software development required by the Customs department. They will also ensure the interface between the Customs and statistical systems and produce the management information outputs required by the Customs department. The team will comprise personnel from UNCTAD and the Customs department.
The End-User Team
The End-User Team will include staff from the Customs department and an UNCTAD Customs Adviser. Its initial task will be to participate in the re-engineering of Customs procedures. The team will then be responsible for preparing user manuals and training material. The team will design the user training programme and train Customs department core instructors. Further tasks will include preparing test data and conducting system tests.