The Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA), with technical support from the World Customs Organization (WCO) and Zambia, on Monday launched a five-day training for over 20 customs officers on the WCO Post Clearance Audit (PCA) Diagnostic Mission.
The training is funded by the WCO through His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) of the United Kingdom, and aims to enhance the capacity of GRA officers in modern compliance management.
Declaring the training open, GRA Commissioner General Yankuba Darboe welcomed the WCO delegation to The Gambia for what he described as an “important national diagnostic and gap analysis mission on Post Clearance Audit.”
He extended sincere appreciation to the World Customs Organization and to His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs UK for their financial support under the WCO Capacity Building Program.
“The presence of these expert delegates reflects the enduring partnership between the GRA, the WCO and HMRC, and our shared commitment to building a modern customs administration that is efficient, transparent, technology-driven and aligned with international best practice,” CG Darboe stated.
The Commissioner General emphasized that customs must now move beyond traditional frontier controls towards intelligence-led and risk-based compliance management.
“Post Clearance Audit is at the heart of this transformation,” he said.
According to him, a robust PCA program enables customs to expedite the release of goods while ensuring compliance through systematic audits after clearance. It improves accuracy in tariff classification, customs valuation, origin determination, and the application of trade policies, while strengthening revenue assurance and building trust with the trading community.
“For the Gambia Revenue Authority, strengthening Post Clearance Audit is not simply a compliance exercise. It is a strategic investment in the future of customs administration,” CG Darboe added.
CG Darboe highlighted that over the past several years, the GRA has embarked on one of the most ambitious customs modernization programs in its history.
He noted that the Authority has implemented several digital innovations, including container scanning technologies and other digital customs solutions that have transformed service delivery.
“These reforms have substantially reduced cargo clearance times, improved transparency, strengthened border control, and enhanced the ease of doing business in The Gambia,” he said.
Most significantly, CG Darboe said the reforms have driven remarkable improvements in revenue performance.
“Through stronger compliance management, digital transformation and enhanced operational efficiency, the GRA has recorded unprecedented growth in customs revenue. Monthly collections now regularly exceed one billion dalasi, and overall domestic revenue has reached record levels.”
He added that these achievements prove that trade facilitation and revenue mobilization can be successfully pursued together.
Explaining the importance of the training, CG Darboe said WCO experts will undertake a comprehensive diagnostic and gap analysis of GRA’s current PCA function during the mission.
The assessment will benchmark GRA’s systems, legal framework, organizational structure, operational procedures, audit methodologies, human resource capacity, and risk management practices against WCO PCA Guidelines and internationally accepted standards.
“The findings and recommendations will provide the GRA with a practical roadmap for strengthening our PCA program and positioning it as a central pillar of our compliance management strategy,” the Commissioner General concluded.
The five-day training continues through Friday.
