LABIS: The Customs Department must tighten its standard operating procedures following investigations into the controversy involving the shipment of high-tech radar equipment via Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) in Gelang Patah, Johor. International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti) Deputy Minister Datuk Chua Tee Yong said the ministry would leave it to Customs to conduct an investigation on whether the company that shipped the cargo complied or evaded the procedures. “They are looking into the full details of the case including whether the company submitted its application to the ministry and whether it has the approval for the shipment,” he told reporters at the Labis parliamentary Hari Raya open house on Saturday. Chua pointed out military and sensitive equipment required approval from Miti as stipulated under the Strategic Trade Act (STA) 2010. Enforcing the STA, he said, required the collaboration between Miti and Customs.
“Customs has the ultimate say on whether these goods should be released or not and the ministry will issue permits only if the company fulfilled the necessary requirements,” he said. It was reported by The Star that a container containing high-tech military equipment, which was being shipped from Australia to Netherlands, had gone “missing” after it was detained at PTP here due to lack of proper documents. It was later confirmed by Customs director-general Datuk T. Subromaniam that the cargo had reached its destination at Rotterdam Port in the Netherlands. The department had since started an investigation into an “unauthorised release” that could have caused the initial assumption that it went missing.
