SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL No. 499 SERVICE MANAGEMENT vol. 3 2008 SŁAWOMIR ZARĘBSKI University of Szczecin THE REQUIREMENTS CONCERNING THE CONCEPTION OF AUTHORIZED ECONOMIC OPERATOR (AEO) IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ISO BASED QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS REQUIREMENTS 1. Introduction The recommendation No. 648/2005 of the European Parliament and the Commission of the European Communities, dated 13 April 2005, introduced in the legal order of the European Union (and also in the legal system of our country) the completely new institution so called the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO). The companies applying for the status of AEO would be the subject of the processes of certification. This certification would be perpetuated by the organs of customs administration of particular EU member country, on fulfillment for the AEO recommendations. The considerable facilitation in the processes of gaining the certification, could be the acknowledgement of already possessed certificates, especially quality management certificates. Such facilitation would concern not only the company applying for the AEO, but also the certificating institution. The idea of this acknowledgement comes from the fact, that the range of AEO requirements is partly convergent to the norms of quality of series ISO 9000. The article analyses the requirements essential to receipt the status of Authorized Economic Operator as well as requirements of qualitative norms from the point of view of the comparison between both above mentioned regulations. Special attention is paid to these aspects of AEO certification, which is the repetition of ISO requirements and seems to be superfluous during the process of certification. 2. The authorized economic operator The introduction of the conception of the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) is one of the most important stage in the process of realization the customs policy of the European Union.
242 Sławomir Zarębski This policy, formulated for instance in Multi Annual Strategic Plan (MASP) 1, statutes the foundation of functioning the customs administration in EU member states and indicates its significance as one of the key elements of Lisbon Strategy. Some of the most important components of this policy are: - the electronic exchange of data (customs documents) between customs offices and submitting companies, as well as between customs offices in different EU countries, - centralized customs procedure, - electronic supervision over the transport of goods, which are contained by the customs procedure of customs supervision, - the institution of authorized economic subject (the AEO) as well as the common criteria for risk analysis. The last question, is described in the Title II A, where the definition of AEO subjects and its place in the whole system was described. The detailed criteria and requirements of acknowledgement of such status has also been described at this document 2. One of the essential principle of EU Customs Policy is the introduction of the control of the economic entities, at the basis of the risk management. The effect of such conception, should be the limitation of quantity and scope of the executed customs controls without reducing their efficiency. It could be done, due to the concentrating the controlling activity on the chosen aspects of high risk level aspects, instead of the control chosen at the random. The customs control should rely on the close cooperation between customs administration and economic entities and the main accent of the control has to be laid on these elements of the risk, which are not (or cannot be) undertaken solely by the companies (the process of risk mapping) 3. The cooperation between the customs offices and enterprises requires the large dose of confidence. Therefore such system has not to be the attribute of all economic subjects but would be limited to such firms only, which are able to fulfill the special, definite requirements. The confidence of customs organs to a specific enterprise, has to be the effect not only of the long-lasting, trouble-free cooperation with customs administration but also must be the result of precisely described and defined rules and regulations. It must be also the effect of the free admission (for customs administrations) to the detailed insight to companies management system as well to as its current legal and financial situation. The enterprise which would submit itself to such regime and obtain the status of certificated Authorized Economic Operator, should gain some important profits. Basic advantages concerns: - limited (smaller than other subjects) number of physical controls and the document control, - preferences in treatment of the transport, in the case of choice it to customs control, - choice of the place of execution the control, - easier access to simplified customs procedures, - smaller quantity of data presented in the customs declaration, - improved relations with customs organs, 1 European Commission, General Directorate of Tax and Customs, Multi Annual Strategic Plan, TAXUD/477/2004, Brussel 2004. 2 More about this subject: W. Czyżowicz: Przepisy wykonawcze do Wspólnotowego Kodeksu Celnego. Monitor Prawa Celnego i Podatkowego 2006, No. 5 (130). 3 European Commission, General Directorate of Tax and Customs, Authorized Economic Operator. Model AEO Compact, TAXUD/1452/2006, Brussel, 2006, p. 3.
The requirements concerning 243 - official acknowledgement of such company, as the safe and reliable trade partner 4. The economic effects of the introduction of the system described in the article would be quite significant. The main idea of the system is to create some simplifications in the processes of customs conduct in the whole transportation chain, relating the transportations of cargoes through the European Union member countries. For any Polish industrial or trade company, which participate as an element of such chain of delivery, the lack of the certificate creates additional costs, decrease in the efficiency of work and consequently - the deterioration of its competitive position. Similar effect concerns Polish service entity (mainly forwarding, transport or logistic companies). The lack of possibility to enter the integrated system of the customs service, which would be based on the companies possessing the AEO certificates, could eliminate such companies from the effective competition with their foreign rivals, especially large, international forwarding or logistic companies. That is why, the introduction of quick and effective procedures concerning the gain of the AEO certificates, has an important meaning for Polish enterprises - both for exporters and the importers, and for the companies of T-S-L (transport, forwarding, logistic) sector. One of the most important factors, concerning the rate of the processes of certification of enterprises applying for the AEO status, will be the procedures used by the Polish customs organs. The existing practice concerning the matter of co-operation between the customs administrations and the economic entities shows that - in spite of rapid adjusting to many EU standards of the customs services - the probability of appearing some problems in this range is quite high. In the result, extension the time of receiving the AEO certificates by the enterprise, could have the dramatic consequences. Therefore, every initiative which serves the facilitation of the processes of certification and which can contribute to diminish the area of AEO certification, should be received favorably by the interested enterprises and certificators. The fear of the work efficiency of customs organs during the processes of the AEO certifications do not concern only the Polish customs administration 5. That is why, it is important to simplify the conduct of gaining the AEO certificate, also through the acknowledgement (by the customs organs) different certificates possessed by the companies - for instance the certificates concerning the norms of series ISO 9000 or norms relating the possession of the Internal System of Control. The acknowledgement should contains those requirements of these systems, which are convergent with the AEO system requirements. 3. Conditions and requirements concerning the authorized economic operator and ISO quality management systems requirements Legal base of the AEO status was introduced by article 5a in regulation (EC) 648/2005. The draft implementing provisions, TAXUD working document (1250/2005), contains the relevant articles concerning the criteria, the conditions and the application for granting the status. The companies, obliged to fulfill the requirements needed to receive the status authorized economic 4 European Commission, General Directorate of Tax and Customs, Authorized Economic Operator. Requirements, Brussel, 2007, pp. 14-17. 5 European Commission, General Directorate of Tax and Customs, Customs Security Programme. AEO Pilot, Brussel, 2006, p. 22.
244 Sławomir Zarębski subject are most of all: forwarders, customs agents, transport companies and also exporters, importers and manufacturers. For instance, the forwarding company applying about status of authorized economic subject forwarders would be controlled through suitable customs under the following matters: - applying forwarding and transport formalities, according to customs regulations, - securing the safety and protection of transportation of goods (especially protection of the means of transportation and transported goods against the access and manipulations by the unauthorized persons). If forwarder realizes also customs agent's services, it will be obliged to apply the full range of customs service procedures. If it is also the carrier, the requirements of AEO, moreover order him the assurance of necessary forwarding records as well as the applying the indispensable legal formalities, according to national and the European customs regulations. As we can see, the range of requirements concerning the Authorized Economic Operator, is partly convergent with other recipes and norms. At this context, especially two norms could be mention: - Polish Norm PN - EN ISO 9001, "The quality management systems. Requirements, - Polish Norm PN - N-19000, The Internal System of Control (WSK). Requirements. A lot of convergences, concerning the AEO requirements, could be find especially in case of the Internal System of Control connected with service of armament and so called the goods of double use (regulated by the regulations concerning the safety of transfer of the goods, technologies and services with strategic significance for maintenance of international peace and safety) 6. The ranges of both relating quality management systems are convergent and contain for instance the following aspects: - requirements for quality management systems (general requirements and the requirement of the systems records), - responsibility of management (their commitment, customer orientation, quality policy, quality planning and also responsibility, authorization and communication, internal audits), - resource management (supply assurance, human management, infrastructure, work environment), - product management (product planning, processes, clients role in the processes, projecting and development, purchases, production and services, supervising), - measurements, analysis and the improvements (monitoring and supervision, data analysis). The range of the guidelines concerning the Authorized Economic Operator contains the following requirements: - information about the enterprise, 6 Act of 29th November 2000 on foreign trade with goods, technologies and services of strategic importance for national security and maintaining the international peace and security. Journal of Laws 2004, no 229 item 2268 (Ustawa z dnia 29.11.2000 r. o obrocie z zagranicą towarami, technologiami i usługami o znaczeniu strategicznym dla bezpieczeństwa państwa, a także dla utrzymania międzynarodowego pokoju i bezpieczeństwa. DzU 2004, nr 229, poz. 2315.)
The requirements concerning 245 - internal organization of the enterprise (internal structure and the level of knowledge concerning the customs procedures), - activity scope of the enterprise (sales level), - customs statistics, - fulfillment of the customs requirements in the past, - company accounting system (audit of tax and customs control, computer environment, finance management), - logistic system of the enterprise, - the system of internal control (procedures of internal control), - the flow of goods (storing, production and transports of goods,) - standard customs procedures, - safety of information and computer systems (the requirements of the data storage and back-up computer systems, certificates of safety, procedures of safety, emergency procedures, range of the protection of records), - requirements relating the safety and protection of company information (entry and closure of the company terrain, physical protection), - safety of the foreign tradesmen requirements, - requirements concerning the personnel safety (employment policy, workers' safety control, training), - requirements in face of the external services. This cursory review of the scope of the quality management systems and the AEO system requirements, permits to indicate these areas of both systems, which are convergent. These are for instance: - internal organization of the enterprise (organizational structure), - customs statistics, complying of customs requirements and standard customs procedures, - logistic system of the enterprise and flow of goods (if such certificated procedures exist in the company in this range), - system of internal control, requirements relating to data securing and data registry as well as requirements concerning safety of the information (closely regulated by the individual norms of both systems of quality management according to norm ISO 9001, and the Internal System of Control), - safety of computer information (if the company possesses the proper procedure), - personnel (staff) safety requirements (for instance employment policy, workers' safety control, training), - requirements concerning the external services and delivery safety (which statute the indispensable element of quality management norms (PN ISO-9001) as well as the main element concerning the norms of the Internal Systems of Control (norm PN - N-19000), - safety requirements relating to the entry on terrain of enterprise, the physical protection, connected with suitable procedures, relating the protection of article. The above-mentioned procedures, based on quality norms, usually do not contain the requirements relating to the system of accountancy of the enterprise, because these elements are regulated in details both in national recipes, e.g. Act of Accountancy (Ustawa o rachunkowości) and the internal (company) instructions. The specification of the above mentioned common areas of requirements for companies applying for ISO and AEO certificates is very spacious and contains considerable part of both systems. In spite of this, special caution must be kept. Especially, it would not be reasonable to
246 Sławomir Zarębski condition the obtainment of the AEO certificate from previous possession of the ISO certificate. The quantity of firms possessing the certified quality management system in Poland is still limited. The costs connected with the process of certification (initiating costs and maintenance cost of such systems) are quite high, and time, needed to the introduction of such system is long. Therefore these systems are usually possessed by medium and large companies. Because the conception of the Authorized Economic Operator depends on the level of integration of all participants of transportation chain, a lot of companies would be eliminated from this chain, if they will not possess the suitable certificate. It will be the extorting factor, which would force the forwarding firms, customs agencies and transport companies to participate in this initiative. The effective functioning of this system would depend on the possibly wide inclusion into the system also small and medium companies. It has to be mentioned, that the possession of suitable ISO certificates is not the sufficient argument to the total resign from the AEO certification procedures. The range of ISO certification can be only partial (it could contain only some part of the company activity, for instance exclusively forwarding without transportation and storing). 4. Conclusions 1. The success of the conception of Authorized Economic Operator will depend mainly on the balance between advantages and disadvantages connected with the status of AEO. The lack of acknowledgement of privileges for the companies applying for AEO status will violate this equilibrium and discourage them to obtain the certificate. 2. Similarly, too high requirements and excessive rigorism of the practice granting the AEO status will eliminate smaller, financially and organizationally weaker enterprises. Such practice as well as the European status of AEO certificate - will prefer large, international companies. That is why, every facilitations concerning certification procedures, will be essential, especially for small and medium enterprises. 3. One of the essential facilitations during the process of AEO certification, could be the exclusion from the this procedure areas, which are the subject of the external audit during the certification of other quality management systems, mainly these, which fulfilling the series ISO 9000 norms. 4. Wide range of convergence areas (specificated in the article), concerning the requirements of above mentioned systems shows, that the mutual acknowledgement in case of procedure requirements, would considerably simplify the process of certification. Although, the diverse range of systems of management in the companies, requires the individual analysis of convergence of the system in every case.
The requirements concerning 247 WYMOGI DOTYCZĄCE KONCEPCJI TZW. UPOWAŻNIONEGO PODMIOTU GOSPODARCZEGO (AEO, AUTHORIZED ECONOMIC OPERATOR) W KONTEKŚCIE WYMAGAŃ SYSTEMÓW ZARZĄDZANIA JAKOŚCIĄ, OPARTYCH NA NORMACH SERII ISO9000 Streszczenie Artykuł zawiera podobieństwa w kwestii spełnienia wymogów, niezbędnych do uzyskania statusu i certyfikatu AEO oraz certyfikatów dotyczących systemów zarządzania jakością, tworzonych w oparciu o normy ISO 9000. Porównania wymogów tych systemów wskazują na szeroki zakres ich podobieństw. Dublowanie obszarów certyfikacji, obejmowanie tym procesem identycznych aspektów funkcjonowania przedsiębiorstw jest zbędnym elementem, który utrudnia, wydłuża i podraża koszty certyfikacji. W artykule po dokonaniu przeglądu obszarów certyfikacji zarówno wymogów dla Upoważnionego Podmiotu Gospodarczego (AEO), jak i dla systemów zarządzania jakością opartych na normach serii ISO 9000 - uzasadniono tezę o konieczności zintegrowania procesów certyfikacji w zakresie obu systemów i rezygnacji z certyfikacji tych obszarów systemów, które podlegały już uprzednio temu procesowi.