GAO criticizes CBP's in-bond program
Long-standing system allows importers to bypass initial duties and inspections, but it only works if agents reconcile the transactions
The in-bond system, a port security measure dating back to the 19th Century, is not being properly administered, GAO reported this month. Under the program, foreign companies sending imports to the United States can buy a bond from a Treasury-approved broker to delay duties and inspections until the goods reach a port other than the initial port of call. The idea is to keep goods moving inland while the nation’s coast cities try to build larger port infrastructure, but it only works if the goods are actually inspected at the end, the taxes collected, and the entire transaction reconciled in a computer system. This is not happening, GAO reported. At the port in Newark, New Jersey, for instance, “more than three-quarters of all in-bond shipments were unreconciled, and some ports, such as Los Angeles, the port with the largest amount of in-bond shipments, could not provide any data on how many in-bond shipments remained unreconciled.” This means, in short, that a large amount of cargo that would have been inspected was not. A new computer system in the works, the Automated Commercial Environment, is [u]expected to help[/u], but it will not be ready for at least eight years.
