EU helps optimise work of Ukrainian border guards and customs officers

Friday, June 19, 2020

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On 19 June 2020, the State Border Guard Service (SBGS) and the State Customs Service (SCS)  of Ukraine completed two week-long training sessions on business process reengineering organised under the EU-funded project “EU Support to Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine (EU4IBM)”. It is the first small step towards improvement of SBGS and SCS processes and procedures which is part of a wider action focused on creation of an integrated border management system aligned with European standards.

“The EU applies a comprehensive approach to the support it renders to Ukraine. This first training triggers a lengthy exercise, which will require critical self-assessment, open-mindedness and readiness to change, but also rigour and zeal to implement the optimized models in real life. However, once completed, this transformation will enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of Ukrainian state agencies working at the border”, said Martin Klaucke, Head of Section “Good Governance and Democratisation” of the EU Delegation to Ukraine.

The training sessions were delivered on 9-19 June to 26 SBGS and SCS representatives who will  become internal ‘agents of change’. The trainers presented them methodologies and tools allowing to review, shorten or simplify working processes so as to reduce time and optimize the involvement of staff, resources and efforts of the organization, and therefore eventually deliver better results with less public money. In addition, optimised processes are expected to be more user-friendly, transparent and therefore discouraging abuse and corruption.

To assist the Ukrainian state agencies in this intensive undertaking, European partners offer wide-ranging expertise bringing together professionals in business analysis and subject matter from inside and outside the country. In the coming weeks, the teams comprising trained SBGS and SCS staff, EU4IBM national and international experts will launch the actual analysis and reengineering of previously selected processes related to integrated border management. The optimization will cover whole areas and sectors of IBM agencies’ work, interagency coordination as well as cross-border cooperation.

“Analysis and reengineering of business processes is an important way of optimizing the functioning of any agency, and this approach has shown good results in EU member states. We are glad that this initiative has resonated with our partners. Both the State Border Guard Service and the State Customs Service are powerful machineries, the optimization of which will inevitably strengthen the economic and other possibilities of their clients. And their clients are the citizens of Ukraine”, explains the EU4IBM Team Leader Arunas Adomenas.

The results of business process analysis and reengineering will also serve as a basis for a more effective national IBM policy, rationalised border controls and more accurate analysis of risks, better interagency and cross-border coordination and exchange of information with neighbouring countries. As a result, Ukrainian citizens will benefit from higher mobility while national economic operators will get the advantage of closer economic ties with the globalised world. All this combined with a higher level of border security and prevention of cross-border crime.

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The EU4IBM project team includes international technical assistance professionals and subject matter experts from Ukraine and the European Union who work on a daily basis to support the border management agencies of Ukraine in the time of war, as well as to further assist in the implementation of national reforms that bring the Ukrainian border management system closer to the standards and best practices of integrated border management. Support our work by sharing our official page on social networks

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