International Training Workshop on Prosecuting Customs Offenses Concludes in Ouagadougou

The International Training Workshop on prosecuting customs offenses before the courts, initiated by the National Customs School (END) of Burkina Faso in collaboration with the Regional Training Center (CRF) of the World Customs Organization (WCO) for West and Central Africa Region, concluded on Friday, September 6, 2024, in Ouagadougou.

From September 2 to 6, 2024, in Ouagadougou, experts and participants from different African countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), Gabon, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, took part in an international workshop training on prosecuting customs crimes in court.

According to Casimir Sawadogo, departmental inspector, Director General (DG) of the National Customs School (END), this training session is in line with the missions of his school. “The END is the World Customs Organization’s regional training center for West and Central Africa. In view of this, he must organize continuing education sessions, seminars, workshops. We have just fulfilled one of our missions here, which is to train customs throughout West and Central Africa. This happened for 5 days, and all the participants are satisfied with this training.”

Adama Ilboudo, departmental inspector, Director General of Customs of Burkina Faso, making the other meaning of this training understandable, argued that the losses of cases before the courts are more and more recorded at their level. Which, according to him, constitutes deficiencies for our States in terms of revenue mobilization.

Expressing his complete satisfaction with this training, he encouraged the participants to implement all the knowledge gained during these 5 days. “Training that is not used is wasted. We want to encourage these learners to put into practice all the information learned during the training.”

Steve Kakisingi, Director of Legal Affairs and Litigation for DR Congo, says he is out “rich, experienced” of this training. For Kassoum David Koné, chief customs inspector and trainer, the session was rich.

“Five modules focused on prosecuting customs offenses in court. Despite some inconsistencies, it was rich to be able to work on these different pieces of legislation and succeed in identifying a course of conduct which is essentially recorded in our different codes.”

By Tambi Serge Pacôme ZONGO

Burkina 24